A Second Chance
by riah alice drake
Summary: An ongoing one-shot about how our beautiful Russian Daughter gets to have the life she deserves without Lex.
1. Chapter 1

She feels it in her fingertips first. It's warm and fuzzy as it spreads slowly up her arms and into her chest. Like running her finger over the blanket Lex had given her before he betrayed her. She even made a move to hang onto that tickling feeling in her hands.

"Hey, guys….The sleeper is waking up."

A voice she doesn't know coupled with a light brush of touch against the back of her closed hand makes her catapult herself off the table she'd been laying on slamming into a corner of the room for protection. Now if only she can remember how to open her eyes to see what new danger she's facing.

"What the hell did you do to her?"

That voice she knows.

Alex Danvers.

"I didn't do anything to her Alex honest. All I said was 'Hey guys…the sleeper is waking up' and she ran away like an adorable scared baby deer."

Alex lets out a slow breath and its quiet for a long moment except for the pounding beat of their hearts. "Must be her powers kicking in. Happened with Kara a lot before she learned to control them." She diagnoses

Light footsteps sound like cannon fire against her ears and the scrap of clothes against one another as whoever it was kneeling down like sandpaper.

"It's alright. You're safe."

Her Russian is rusty at best but the kind tone behind the words calms her enough to lower her arms from around her head. "Here maybe these will help." Kara Danvers's Alex whispers this time in English obviously seeing her discomfort at all the noise.

A pair of Kara Danvers's glasses are slid onto her nose and carefully hooked over her ears. It helps but only a little as she meets the concerned gaze of Alex Danvers.

"Are you going to kill me?" Her accent is thick from fear as she forces the words out pushing passed the pain in her head at the volume of her own whisper.

It's a wonder she is here at all. The last thing she remembers is saving Kara Danvers from Lex and the searing pain of the kryptonite working its way to her heart.

Alex and the shaggy-haired man with the beard standing behind her shake their heads.

"No no of course not."

"Why would we bring you back if we were going to do a stupid thing like that?" Alex reaches over to smack the back of the man's head when he moves close enough for her to touch with a less than happy "Shut up Winn" while her other arms stays wrapped around her waist keeping her close and for once protected as she is guided to stand on unsteady legs.

"Everyone deserves a second chance sweetheart. You most of all."

At this Linda peeks up looking passed the hair that has fallen into her sightline.

Alex Danvers's mother is standing in the doorway. A tray of food in her arms that she quickly deposits on the little table beside the bed before crossing closer to the other three.

Red daughter shrinks back against Alex's side at her approach her head down in defeat as she speaks. "I am sorry…" she tells the motherly woman her accent all but disappearing into something more like Kara's as she once again peeks up at the woman, she so recently had been holding hostage. "for trying to harm you."

Eliza lets out the smallest of laughs at her apology holding out her arms for a hug "I don't blame you little one everyone makes mistakes. It's called being human."

Linda moves from one Danvers woman's arms to another now clinging onto Eliza for all she is worth.

"Good thing her strength hasn't fully come back yet." The matriarch comments sliding her fingers into the crying Kryptonian's hair while her other hand rubs little circles against her back as she guides Linda over to the couch. Alex and Winn follow a few steps behind the latter carrying the food tray with him. "What? She's basically Kara meaning she'll be hungry." He defends setting it down on the coffee table then taking a seat in a chair leaving Alex to take the other side of the sofa beside Linda and her mother.

Linda realizes when her eyes open again that she must have dozed off after eating more than half of what had been offered to her noticing how the film on the television had changed to something else. Also, Eliza and Winn are now nowhere to be seen. She can however still hear them talking low in the kitchen.

Alex had shifted as well having made sure Linda stayed as much as she could in the warm path of the natural sunlight coming in the windows whilst letting the sleeping clone of her sister use her as a kind of human teddy bear while she slept much like Kara would after long missions.

God she really missed having those memories. She's remembering more of them day by day each one bringing equal parts love and guilt over how she'd treated her sister when she hadn't known her secret.

"Where is Kara Danvers?"

The original Kryptonian had been eerily absent both times she'd woken and not that she'd admit it, but Linda was becoming worried over her safety. As far as she knew Lex was still an all too present threat.

"She had to make a stop off first before coming to check on you after her last check on the city." Alex answers keeping an arm draped across Linda's shoulder making her feel safer than her Lex ever made her feel in that small act. "She'll be back soon."

"How am I here now?" Linda wonders changing the subject snuggling more against the agent's side.

This time it's Winn choosing then to return to the living room once again baring more food. "Magic science and pure luck."

"That doesn't matter how you're here. What matters is that you are." Eliza steps in stroking her hand in Linda's hair. "Now how about a movie until Kara comes back huh?" she suggests offering the double of her adopted daughter the remote.

"Hang on how come she gets to pick?" Alex complains yet without lifting her arms from around Linda's shoulders keeping her close.

Eliza rolls her eyes at her eldest daughter "Because Alexandra you chose last time now its Kara's turn….or in this case…umm…" she pauses looking over at Red Daughter.

"Linda…. Linda Lee…"

The name seeming to have a curious effect on the Danvers matriarch. A tender smile graces her lips as she looks Red daughter over.

"Mom? What's wrong?" Eliza shakes her head at Alex's question offering both her and Winn a plate so they like Linda could dig into the meal waiting on the coffee table. "Just remembering someone I used to know with a name like that."

"Oh yeah?" Alex questions after swallowing a mouth full of her mother's home-made chicken fried rice.

"An old friend." Her mother nodes taking a sip of her glass of lemonade once again offering Red Daughter the television remote as she curls up on the chair beside the couch balancing her plate against her lap while Winn chooses to take a seat on the floor before digging into his own plate.

The other three wished they'd had a camera to capture the look of pure joy on Linda's face when in scrolling in the list of movies one seems to catch her eye. It was Winn that pulled his eyes toward the tv long enough to catch the title that had cause the shy Russian Kryptonian to show a smile brighter than the sun "Gatsby."

"It is beautiful." Linda defends hesitating in hitting play as she meets every pair of eyes around her.

"Go on sweetheart." Eliza prompts with a kind smile. Alex nodes in approval at her choice as she takes a long drink of the single beer her mother allowed her, but Winn was too busy typing away on a tablet she hadn't known he had to give any more than a quick. "Hey, it beats having to watch Terminator 2 for the zillionth time." As he grins at whatever his screen was telling him not seeming to care about Alex lobbing a pillow at his head.


	2. Chapter 2

Kara and Alura touched down soundlessly with Kara relocking the backdoor as quietly as possible once she'd ushered her mother into her adoptive 'childhood' home. It was much later than she'd intended to be back by and going by how slow the heart beats where everyone else was asleep.

Sometimes having powers helps as she levitates into the living room to check on her family leaving her mother waiting in the kitchen for her return.

Kara smiles when she notices that while she'd been gone Alex had taken her advice about what to have on hand should their guest wake up going by the four empty sleeves of Oreos scattered across the table and the half empty one she guessed had been confiscated by Eliza sometime during the movie.

They'd changed Linda out of her 'Red Daughter' shield as soon as she'd been stable enough to make the trip from the DEO med bay to Midvale choosing instead one of Kara's favored brand of comfy sleep pants and one of Alex's old college sweatshirts.

"Dammit, Alex it was one of the few things she could truly call hers in that place. I'm not taking it away from her just because Lex gave it to her."

It was the only time after the move that they'd talked about what to do with the 'armor' Lex had given Red Daughter that ended with Kara agreeing to all but the long cape being taken into DEO custody until Red Daughter woke up. The cape ending up wordlessly being draped over the sleeping Kryptonian like a security blanket.

Not that Eliza will admit to it after she'd finished mending the rips and patching up the burn marks marring the crimson colored fabric.

Despite having them for a few weeks prior to separating once again this time on purpose Kara had yet to get used to having bits of Red Daughter's memories in her head.

The first taste of the rich drink that warms both her hands and her body after wandering the woods, her love of the tasty round biscuits with the cream in the middle, flashes of different chess matches with 'Alex', speed reading the little paperbacks 'Alex' would thoughtfully send to help her learn English and to keep her mind sharp, drinking in every bit of information she could from Kara Danvers's private journal about Lena Luthor.

After Kara had confessed to having them her Alex guesses these memories were a holdover from the two merging back together after Lex 'killed' Red Daughter.

Kara is pulled from her musing by the soft opening titles from the movie her sleeping family had left open on the screen.

"Gatsby?"

In all their talks while they waited to see when or the dreaded if Red Daughter would wake up after successfully separating them again Kara had completely forgotten to mention her 'sister's' love of the classic book. She'd seen if often enough in her time sorting her own memories and thoughts from Red Daughter's and had even read several chapters to the sleeping Kaznian hoping hearing her favorite book would help wake her up.

Her murmured question must have been too loud seeing as not a full heartbeat later Red Daughter was on her feet her thoughtfully saved cape almost ripping apart from its cocooned state from the speed of her movements. "Who zhell are you," she demands her mind too hazy with sleep to realize who she's facing as she struggles to keep her voice low yet her Kaisonian accent thick in her anger her eyes glowing with fire as she stands to protect her family.

"It's alright sister. We aren't here to hurt anyone." Kara answers surprising herself with how strong her own Russian dialect was as she keeps her hands raised in surrender.

Then she realized Linda hadn't been talking to her.

"I would sooner harm myself than you my daughter."

Alura like Kara has her hands raised in a show of submission as she takes a slow step toward her now twin daughters as the glow in 'Linda's' eyes dimed back to the blue she shared with her father.

"Mom?" The watery break in her voice mirrors Kara's exactly to the first-time mother and daughter were reunited back on Argo.

"Lin? What's wrong?" Alex's sleepy voice is followed by the low hum of an alien gun powering up the elder Danvers stands beside her other Kryptonian sister as the lamp on the side table clicks on.

"Kara Zor-El Danvers do you have any idea what time it is?" Alex scolds holstering her weapon her other hand in her sleep tossed hair as she blinks the sleep from her eyes long enough to glance at her watch.

Thankfully for the Danvers sisters, their mother and Winn were heavy sleepers.

"Girls." Eliza scolds without opening her eyes as she rolls over as best, she could in the recliner to shield her eyes from the glow of the lamp. "Fight later back to sleep now."

Alright, not as heavy as they'd thought.

"But Mom its three in the morning. And it's the first Saturday I've gotten off work in like ever." Alex complains making Kara and Linda giggle at her pouting expression. Even Alura gave a weak laugh.

"Come on sis." Kara sighed "Bedtime Alex." Linda agrees sliding back into her native Russian sharing a look with Kara how nodes in agreement "I got Eliza just make sure Al doesn't hurt herself trying to get into bed."

"Hey, that was one time. And I was a bit drunk."

Kara rolls her eyes at her sister "A bit?" Linda choosing to smile shyly steadying the better Alex when the taller woman sways on her feet as Kara points them toward the stair making Alura smile wider as she watches her daughter coxing Eliza out of the recliner as her twin guides Alex toward the staircase.

"What about him?" Alura whispers her eyes on Winn when he too starts to sleepily complain about the lights without actually waking up.

"Guest room it's down the hall to the right." She can't discern if it had been Kara or Linda that had spoken but she does as they ask easily baring the human's weight as she carries him toward his designated room for the night.

Linda and Kara return to find their mother wandering the living room looking at the pictures on the walls some of them documenting Kara's life with the Danvers family.

"Jeremiah."

Alura starts almost dropping the photo of a young Alex Danvers hanging with her arms around a man's neck both smiling brightly at the camera to notice her twins returning. Kara, however, is looking at Linda close to tears, but Red Daughter taps her temple telling her 'sister' her knowledge of the name wasn't just because of her time studying her.

"Our connection worked both ways."

Somehow it calms her knowing she wasn't the only one dealing with their newfound bond.

"Mon-El. I hate him." Kara giggles both at the lighting of the mood and at being able to see her own angry pouting face as everyone else has. "So does Alex really everyone does." She shrugs looping her arm across Linda's shoulders leaning the way into the kitchen for a late-night snack. She's thinking ice cream or cold take out.

"But how much do you remember about what happened before you woke up here?"

Kara stiffens at her mother's question busying herself with raiding the refrigerator while the 'crinkle' sets in over Linda's eyes as she concentrates.

"Al…erm Lex him attacking us…."

"Anything else?"

Linda shakes her head until she speaks again "I would like to go with you." Not for the first time, Alura seems confused while Kara's smile can light up a city "When you return to your Argo. I would like to see it for myself."

Her mother seems to be fighting back tears as she nodes in agreement "Of course you can come with me if that's what you want."

"Alright time to introduce you two to the wonder of cookies and cream ice cream once we've restarted that classic in the living room I think." her hunt of the fridge had proven a bust at least for her tastes at the moment but lucky for her the freezer had been well stocked.

Linda's eyes light up at the offer so excited she starts vibrating where she stands but then she shakes her head obviously thinking of something else. "Yellow brick road."

Alura didn't think she could see her daughters so happy but somehow, she managed with those three whispered words.

"Double flick it is."

The mother simply followed her twins back into the dimly light den with a pleased smile when they chose to sit together under Linda's cap blanket.

"Just one question." She voices folding herself down on the other end of the sofa. "Why is the road yellow?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Afternoon sleepy head." Alex greets with a scratchy chuckle seeing a nervous looking Linda peeking around the doorway from the stairway. Her hair wet after her shower her clothes sticking to her damp body having been too eager to head down to the rest of her 'family' after she'd woken up from her power nap to dry off properly despite having the powers to do so.

So much like Kara had been whose first days of living with them.

Red Daughter smiles brightly at her leaning over the couch to make a grab for an Oreo and to get a look at the chess board Kara and Alex have set up between them on the sofa cushion. "Queen knight there." she helps pointing from Alex's knight to an empty space on the defense of her king.

"Hey." Kara pouts hoping her sister wouldn't notice the opening that would have put her king in an early check

"She helped me how they say, 'to catch a wave' I help her with this game." Linda shrugs munching on her cookie already reaching for another.

They had become a weakness for her. Had Lex been around he would have maybe jumped at the chance to beret her for such an attachment. Even she had several times in the last day or so over sinking to the level of the American greed for 'junk food'. Yet here she was munching on the yummy cocoa tasting biscuits with the different flavored creams testing out how each one tested on her tongue.

The last two days she'd tried: original, double stuffed, blue raspberry iced cream, green tea, peanut buttered chocolate, mint, strawberries n' cream, and banana split.

At the moment she was testing out the mixed sleeve she'd made of birthday caked, strawberry milkshake and brownie battered flavored Alex had gotten for her on the walk back from the beach that morning.

"You took her surfing. Alex, why didn't you wake me up so I could go with you?"

"Cause she and I need some sister bonding time just the two of us and mostly because the last time I tried to ask if you wanted to come with me you tossed a lampshade at my head."

Linda giggles to herself picturing that in her mind as she remembered hearing Alex tiptoeing down the steps like a cat burglar only to find her waiting for at the start of the driveway having woken the second Alex had tried unsuccessfully to pull her surfboard out of its stored place the garage in relative quiet so as to not wake the rest of the house just because she wanted to go out to the beach for some 'me' time that had happily turned into what Alex called "Danvers sister 2.0 time"

"Yeah, and I have to say you're a much better student that Kara ever was." Alex praised carding her fingers in Linda's hair when she folded herself down onto the floor beside Alex's leg her cap back around her shoulders like the comforting blanket it was to her and a half-empty sleeve of Oreo's in her lap with a smile that could almost rival the brightness of the sun itself.

"Her and I are the same person." Kara groans swiping one of each of the three flavored cookies her twin was hoarding with a shy grin at the puppy like growl Linda made at the act.

Alex rolls her eyes at the banter twisting Linda's hair into a loose braid with one hand as she studies the chess board. "No genetically you are but Lin actually wanted to learn how to surf whereas you kept complaining about why you had to learn in the first place when flying was so much easier."

"No, I think your thinking of when we tried to get her to learn how to swim Alexandra." Liza joined in from the kitchen.

"But she learned from her time on Krypton why would she need to relearn something she already had." Kara brightens at her Mother coming to her defense pretending not to notice Linda nuzzling her head under Alex's hand when their sister stopped playing with her hair.

"Alex." The DEO director glanced down when Linda tugged at her shirt sleeve like a child would her mother letting Kara, Alura and Liza bicker between themselves for a few moments. "Move the king rook here." Alex grinned moving the piece to take Kara's knight while also setting up for an early checkmate if she was careful.

She holds up her hand for a high five only to have Linda look at her with the Kara version of one of Maggie's head tilts. Alex wouldn't admit it out loud, but Linda's almost rivaled the originals for most adorable.

"Like this." She explains bringing Red Daughter's hand up to rest against her own.

"Is Lin back yet?"

Red Daughter giggled louder than she does at the pouting look on Kara Danvers face when she realizes she's lost the game to the better Alex at the goofiness of Winslow "Winn" Schott, Jr. as the cute man came skidding into the room a pleased smirk on his lips.

Having left the night before for a short time she'd missed being able to hear his heartbeat mingling with the others in her family when she'd woken that morning.

"Good to see you're feeling better snow puppy."

The nickname makes her blush and the fact that he says it in Russian makes her insides all fuzzy and warm. Not to the level of Lena Luthor how makes her heart pound against her ribs in quiet longing but enough to make her lose focus for a few moments as she looks into his eyes.

She likes how her new family has taken the time to integrate her 'native tongue' into conversations with her so she could choose to talk in either English or Russian. Yet she can't help becoming warry when she sees he has kept a hand at his back hiding something from them the second he spotted her sitting on the floor at Alex's knee.

"Something wrong Agent Schott?" Alex questions feeling Linda tensing up against her leg bringing a comforting hand against her back as she and Kara reset the chess board amused all over again at seeing the way Linda is peeking over at Winn like a schoolgirl would her first crush despite her nervous as to what he was keeping behind his back.

"Nothing wrong just…. well, I got something for our snowbird here ….well I say I but really Lena and Papa bear helped too."

Anyone else would have thought Alex had just threatened to use one of the many ways she could kill with her index finger on him given how nervous he was being.

"Come on Winn how come you're never this adorable around me anymore?" Kara teases looking over at her 'younger brother' over the top of her glasses.

Winn rolls his eyes feigning more when Eliza and Alura choose to join them the move earning a happy squeal from Kara when she spots the plate of pizza bagels her 'earth Mom' is carrying.

She can't begin to put into words how happy she is that her real and adoptive mothers have formed such a close bond in the short time they'd been around one another. Although she would love it if her mother would stop bringing up stories of her more awkward times before Krypton was destroyed.

She was ten and how was she to know Kal would be that fast at a month old? Besides she had caught him in time before he'd done any real damage despite still carrying the scar over his right eye from the hit his head at taken against the table.

"Remember to share girls." The elder Danvers reminds them before passing the plate over to them only after a coursed "yes mom" from all three of her daughters.

Unlike her 'sisters' Linda chose to keep her gaze on Winn. "Gift time it is then." He nodes bringing out the larger than expected box from behind his back.

Linda shifts pulling her cap tighter around her when all eyes turn to her as she gingerly peels away the paper.

"Wait wait wait." Kara insists speeding out of the room for a half second only to come back just as quickly camera in hand. "What this is like a belated birthday present so it should be documented as one." She insists handing the camera over to Eliza then immediately reclaims her seat on the couch with Alura and Winn taking the two other chairs and Eliza opting for Jeremiah's old recliner.

Only two things wait for her after Alex helpfully slices the tape open for her before handing the box back.

The first is a book.

"You found one." Alex whispers high fiving Winn who nodes "Like I said Lena helped." He shrugged as Linda lifts it from the box.

She can hear the rapid click of the camera when she turns it gingerly to inspect the spin.

_'Velikiy Getsbi'_

Water floods her eyes, but she fights to keep composure as she looks up to meet Winn's gaze.

"Do you like it?"

Red Daughter doesn't answer as she lets her cap fall from around her shoulders tucking her new book into it then handing it off for Alex to look after for a few seconds before launching herself at Winn yet making sure to be gentle with him before they made contact.

"It is beautiful. I can't thank you enough."

She says it in Russian, but she can tell by his smile he understood her when they pull apart only for her to pull him back in for another hug.

"Oh, this little baby." Winn grins when Linda stops her tears long enough to remember the other thing tucked into what was her first real birthday gift.

The tablet seems ordinary enough, but the Danvers women at least knew it had a few tricks in its circuits if Winn had had anything to do with it.

"We've already loaded it up for you. Basic stuff. Music, solitaire, chess, interplanetary words with friends, color by numbers, a few pictures, ebook library."

"Interplanetary words with friends?" Alex chuckles sharing a grin with Kara.

"Hey, it was Vasquez's idea." Winn defends reaching for one of the last pizza bagels from the latest batch "And with her wanting to go back to Argo we thought it would be fun." He shrugs taking a bite of the snack food.

Alex was about to ask what else the device does when all the super hearing women in the room all looked like they were subjected to a dog whistle, a low-grade explosion and a fire alarm at the same time.

Again, before she could ask Kara was gone only to come back seconds later in her Supergirl attire while holding one of the several spars she kept at the house out for Linda.

"Mom and I will handle the fires. You go check on Lena."

Red Daughter nodes spinning into the super suite faster than even she thought she was capable as Eliza switches on the TV hunting the channels for any kind of newscast.

"DEO is already in route we'll start on damage control." Alex promises her phone going off like crazy while Winn types away at his tablet

"Everyone just come back safe and we'll try this again." Eliza says by way of a send-off as the supers and Alex speed out the back door while Winn heads to the kitchen table without lifting his eyes from his work.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author Notes: ****Again the outside fanfic being referenced is '#sanversweek day 3: "you're drunk"' from the talented tumber author Performative Zippers  
**

**Link:**

** post/162066625165/sanversweek-day-3-youre-drunk**

* * *

She really was trying to play it nice with the new one. She could see that being with her was making her Alex happy. Well almost happy. A different kind of happy. A fake happy.

The longer she observed the two together she could pick out the differences. Or at least the part of her that was Kara could see the differences. Her smile was too guarded. Too forced. It wasn't a real smile. Not like the ones she flashed before. Ones that were bright like the stars.

She sees those real Alex smiles when she sleeps hears her real laughter and not the fake laughs she gives when the new one is around.

Linda so wants to see one of those star bright smiles for herself to hear that real full bully laughter the normally follows and not just from someone else's memories in her head.

But how?

The one that caused it was gone. For that Linda sulks. She didn't want her gone. She likes the small one that made her Alex so happy.

"Hey, Al, you in…. Oh hey. Um…. Linda, right? Red Daughter?"

Linda tries not to flinch at her former code name as her eyes don't look up from their trained gaze on the floor. Well, one thing was sure. The new one was getting better at telling the 'Kara Twins' as Winn calls them apart.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

The new one takes a seat beside her on Alex's small couch.

Linda finished early with her part of her latest mission checking in on the beautiful Lena. She was alright it turned out. She'd explained to the awestruck Linda that she had accidentally sent out a false alarm of danger saying her watch had been hit too hard on the edge of a table. Yet the coldness in her eyes when she'd dismissed her after Linda had spotted a broken picture on her desk of her angel and her sisters had Linda sulking more than she was for her Alex while she hid away in her big sister's office like a child.

Another thing Lex would have scolded her for. She can hear him in her had as clearly as if he were in the room with them.

'Gods wouldn't hide away Daughter. You are a god. Act like one.'

"Come on. Maybe I can help." Kelly coxes nudging her shoulder with Linda's as she scoots closer. Linda shakes her head pulling her legs up against her chest to make herself smaller. She'd changed into some of Alex's spare clothes almost as soon as touched down at the DEO. They made her feel…safe.

"I am fine."

Yes, the new one was nice and kind and good, but she wasn't the one Linda wanted to open up to.

She wanted the small one with the smile that could power cities. The one with the scent of stale coffee, scotch and leather. That liked looking after baby trees in her spare time.

She wanted her Dude.

"Found her…. hey found them both cool…..Thanks Vaz."

The two on the couch turned as one at the call.

"Hey, you."

Again, Linda spots a less than perfect Alex smile as the other on the couch get up to pull her sister in for a greeting hug and a quick kiss.

"Hey yourself." Alex greets but Linda can hear she is holding herself back. Alex's smile falters even more as soon as her eyes find Linda.

She untangles from the new one instantly reclaiming Kelly's place beside her yet closer than Linda had let the other woman get. "Lin? What's wrong?"

Rather than answer Red Daughter pulls her sister in for a warm comforting hug. Drinking in the strength she gets from simply being in the other woman's presence.

"I am better now." She chirps when they part. It's not really a lie but not the full truth either. "I will leave you to your date now."

Alex starts to shake her head but its Kelly that answers "No need to leave on my account. It's just lunch. You're more than welcome to stay."

Linda shakes her head leaning over to press a soft kiss against Alex's coloring cheeks. "Kara Danvers and Mom are back. I will eat with them" she shrugs getting to her feet.

Alex narrowed her eyes as she looks Linda over. She's not dumb she knows her new sister is dodging them because of something. Yet before she can dig a little more as to why and almost as if on cue Kara breezed into the room bringing the scent of smoke with her. "Hey, I was going to take Mom over to check out that new Chinese fusion pizza place by the airport wanna come?"

"And miss you geeking out because they have two of your favorite things under one roof?" Alex laughs already picking up her jacket from the back of her chair.

Linda is about to accept as well as the mention of food reminds her that is was more than a while since she'd last eaten. "I…." she starts to say when she casts a glance out the window wall into the control room below spotting someone that reminds her of her earlier idea. "I will try another time. I am sure I can find something here I will like. Just remember Eliza expects us all back for dinner tonight." Linda reminds with a soft smile.

"Got it." Her sisters say at the same time pulling her in for a three-person hug.

"and you shower and change before you go."

Alex and Kelly laugh together at the wounded look Kara gives at the scold from her clone. "Nice one L." The real Alex grins holding out her hand for a high five that Red Daughter doesn't hesitate to return this time before turning to the door.

It takes a while to track her prey in the maze of halls, but soon enough she finds him. Stretched out on a couch in one of the three break rooms in the building tinkering with some high-tech looking device Linda had heard Brainy ask him to look at before he gave it as a gift to Nia.

"Winn?"

The cute computer genius starts a little at her touch having been too engrossed in whatever he'd been doing to hear her approach. Well, that and the fact he had headphones on she guesses. "Hey, Snowie. What brings you to my neck of HQ?"

Linda rolls her eyes cracking the first real smile since returning to the DEO as she goes to hug him. "I need your help. I need to find someone."

"Oh yeah?" Winn smiles running a hand in his already unkempt hair "Who's the target?"

* * *

"Sawyer…. you have a visitor."

The warn out detective glanced up at words then looked at her watch then at the calendar on her desk. No, she wasn't expecting one of her contacts to bringing her any more info on one of her cases and besides even if she was it was way too late for anyone with a brain to be out walking the streets of Gotham City.

"Burning night light Sawyer. Get out there." Her boss huffed from her office when the cop didn't go see who was waiting for her.

With a groan, Maggie got up taking her coffee mug with her for another cup of what passed for coffee at the precinct. At least the lobby coffee was a bit better than what they had to deal with in the breakroom.

She'd barely cleared the door when she was engulfed in a familiar pair of strong arms. "My Dude." Her visitor giggles only hugging tighter when Maggie tried to wrestle free. "I miss you." A surprisingly shy Kara Danvers hums pulling back to look at her without dropping her vice of a hold.

If Maggie didn't know better, she would swear the Kryptonian was drunk and the fact that she was dressed in disheveled pajamas she seemed to have borrowed from her sister didn't help that argument. Seriously it was cold enough to threaten snow and Kara wasn't wearing shoes or socks. Or worryingly her glasses.

"Patrol found her wandering by the park. When they stopped her, she immediately asked if they knew her dude, Maggie…..Maggie Sawyer."

As if on cue Kara jumped in with a proud smirk on her lips "My dude Maggie look. I found new song." She giggles waving what Maggie knew was a phone belonging to one of the officers waiting in the lobby with the giddy sister of Maggie's ex-fiancée. No, this woman might look like Kara, but she didn't sound like her. This had to be the other Kara the one Lex Luthor had been working with to bring down the real Kara.

Maggie might have transferred back to her old stomping ground as soon as she got the chance but that didn't mean she stopped keeping an eye on the news concerning the 'little sister' of the woman she had at one point being engaged to.

"Also, here." The Kara double smiles holding out a steaming to go cup. "It is still your favorite yes?" the accented voice prompts nervous as Maggie takes the cup turning it until she could read the order on the receipt taped to the side. Not coffee as some part of the cop's brain was grateful for but hot cocoa.

"Sure is." Maggie nodes earning a genuine smile from the blonde as she takes a sip letting the warmth of the drink work its way into her warn out and tired limbs. "I've got her from here guys." Maggie assures noticing how her fellow officers were still hanging around eyeing them warily.

"Good, maybe you can get her to go home for a few hours." Maggie starts causing the Kara double to spin her around putting herself between Maggie and her captain. "That's an order, Sawyer. You and…" Kate paused looking toward Kara.2

"Danvers…. Linda Danvers" 'Kara' answers her hand starching out politely but the hard fire in her blue eyes didn't dim nor did she move from her firm stance between the two.

Kate smiled her eyebrow raised. But Maggie knew the other woman well enough since coming back that she could tell Kate was upset for some reason. As if she'd somehow met Kara before and was upset her double hadn't remembered it. Yet just as soon as that look flashed in her eyes it was gone replaced with an amused smirk that didn't reach her eyes as the two shook hands. "Another Danvers?"

Maggie didn't answer instead becoming very interested in the design on her to go cup. "Anyway, you and Danvers go home get some sleep or hell listen to that new song she said she found. Anything but come in for the next week. You need time away. This seems a good of an excuse as any."

She wants to argue back but she also knows that her captain is only looking out for her. Despite living once again in one of the most crime rampant cities in the world Maggie had been incredibly fortunate to be able to work under a commanding officer that actually gave a dame about the officers she worked with. Besides with all the overtime she was pulling in Maggie did have more than a few vacation days waiting for her to use.

"…shark do do doo doo dado…. Mama shark….."

The two officers dropped the other's eyes in favor of looking at the blonde yet to move from her defensive place between them. "What…. I like this song." Linda defends. That triggers popcorned rounds of muffled laughter while Maggie rolls her eyes with the hint of a smile.

"Hang here while I go get my jacket then we'll go."

Linda nodes rather reluctantly returning the phone to its owner. "Thank you for letting me borrow." She says her broken English earning a warmer smile from the officer. "Not a problem at all." He assures pocketing the device.

Maggie grins mouthing her own thanks to her follow officer then turns on her heels to head back into the bullpen. She hadn't made it clear of the first row of desks before she felt a familiar shadow following her.

"Don't want you tripping my dude." Linda says by way of an explanation of her actions. Not that surprising considering the amount of coffee Maggie had had in the last 24 hours. Maggie shrugs allowing her new shadow to follow her over to her desk to sign off on the last pages of a case and pick up her jacket from the back of her chair.

"What is this?"

Maggie looks up from shutting down her computer to see Linda Lee standing beside her desk examining a zip-locked bag of powdered sugared checks cereal her latest partner dropped off that morning. She hadn't had the heart to reject the offering and had just left it on her desk while she worked occasionally taking a few pieces just to say she'd eaten something as she stared herself cross-eyed on case after case.

"Its puppy chow. Well, puppy chow trail mix more like."

The famous 'Danvers crinkle' soon appeared the longer the Kara double poked at the contents of the bag before looking back toward Maggie. "You have a dog?"

Maggie chuckled as she flipped her hair back over the collar of her jacket making one last check for her bike keys as she tugs her helmet out from her lower desk drawer. "Yes I do." she turns a framed picture on her desk of her smiling beside a mixed breed. "Rescued her almost as soon as I got back to town actually, but this kind of chow is for people only." She explains holding out her hand toward the super twin.

Linda goes to hand over the bag but again Maggie shakes her head her outstretched fingers closing around Linda's free hand instead. "I'll tell you more about it on the way to the lot." She offers earning one of Kara's heart-melting smiles as Linda nodes gratefully her hand tightening in Maggie only just remembering to back down her strength before her eagerness to be accepted could accidentally break her new friend's hands.

"Thank you, my dude Maggie."

The detective chuckles at that letting Linda break their connection the second they were back in front of other people on the way to the elevator. "Why do you keep calling me that?"

Linda blinks as if not understanding the question before she shrugs. "I have some of Kara Danvers's memories. The most recent I have seen being when she went after you in that bar and talked you into shots of water during that sports game."

Maggie smiles bashful now as she hit the button for the underground parking lot. Now she remembers why hearing that is equally amusing and painful to her. It came from a time when she was happier. She and Alex were just starting out as a couple and she and Kara were growing closer little by little.

It was also the night her favorite out of city hockey team had won a key match during which she'd gotten royally sloshed. Now she thinks about it she may even still have a few of the videos Kara had taken that night on her phone.

"Huummm. This is good."

Maggie started at the louder than needed exclamation in the still groaning elevator car. "Huh? Oh yeah. It is." She agrees her hands fisted deep in her jacket pockets as the elevator chimes.

The doors had slide closed by the time Maggie had pivoted around stopping a perky looking Linda form moving more than a step or two away from the elevator.

It wasn't until she hears a faint giggling that Maggie risked looking over at the Kara double. Low a behold it was to see her on a phone of her own. The little sneak. Rather than call her out for it the detective asks, "Who are you texting?"

Linda blushed pink at the question. "Lena."

"Does she know…..I mean about…." Maggie mimicked taking off an imaginary set of glasses making Linda giggle louder as she nodes. "She does. Not only did 'not the real Alex' tell her before my sister she was also helpful in seeing I got to live and be my own person."

Maggie cringed at the knowledge "Bet she didn't take it well,"

Linda shakes her head "but she did put her anger aside enough to help with me."

Again, Maggie nodes before asking the question that been buzzing in her head since laying eyes on the Kara double. "Why are you here? Really?" she had to know if this wasn't just some big kidnapping scheme. "Are you thinking you could somehow use me to get to Kara and A…" she fumbles on the name her throat tightening painfully even now but she pulls herself together with as much dignity as she can and tries again. "My point in asking is I want to know what do you want with me?"

Linda shakes her head tears welling in her blue eyes as her hands raise rambling out what Maggie guesses is an apology in Russian of all things yet talking so quickly that even if she had been able to understand it Maggie has trouble translating every other word of it. She obviously picks up on it because halfway into her backpaddling she changes over to choppy English "I only want to meet you. I see you in Kara's memories more and more and I want to know you myself. I come on my own. I am not here to trick you in any way."

The detective's arms remain locked across her chest defensive as she pulls another question from the growing list forming in her mind. "What about Lex?"

"He is dead. Lena killed him." The way she says the CEO's name reminds Maggie so much of how she would say Alex's before they started dating. So much low simmering love caressing every letter. It seemed memories weren't the only thing the Kara twins shared. They also had the same taste in women or in this case in one woman in particular.

"Knowing who your double is that chow won't hold you for long." Maggie comments after a pregnant pause while she thinks things over. Linda shrugs her shoulders her eyes going to her shoes when like Maggie predicted her stomach growled like a lion giving her away.

Maggie chuckles hiding a yawn behind her hands now the last of the station coffee had faded away leaving the start of fast-moving fatigue behind. She shakes it off as best she could her hands sliding into Linda's as she tugged her over to her waiting motorcycle. "Come on I know an all-night diner close by with a decent enough menu."

Linda looks like she wants to protest but as Maggie suspected her growling stomach wins out. That is until Kara 2.0 breaks out one of Kara's more mischievous smiles her head tilted to the side listening to something Maggie wouldn't hope to catch. "Or you can come for dinner. Eliza just called us for family supper."

Maggie hesitated. She had missed the Danvers's monarchs cooking something fierce. But a family dinner meant facing Alex.

"Please. My Dude. You come as my guest. Eliza misses you." Linda pleads seeing the rejection forming on her new friend's lips. "Alex has to decline. Working late."

Maggie's eyes flicker to Linda's face as if not fully believing her. For once she can't decipher her answer. Linda has too good of a poker face, unlike Kara who was more or less an open book. "Please." The Kara double tries again using the full force of that heart-melting pout.

"Alright. Okay." Maggie agrees after a pause bringing a clapped smile from the alien double beside her. "But at least let me take my bike home before we leave."

To say Linda was pleased with her acceptance was an understatement. The Russian daughter delight seemed to be nothing short of mischievous as she accepted the spare helmet Maggie offered her.

What the hell had Maggie gotten herself into?


	5. Chapter 5

Maggie could tell as they weaved in and out of traffic how excited the woman behind her was about the ride. Then she had to remind herself that this wasn't the same Kara Danvers she knew. This was her twin. Linda.

Unconscious as the move was Maggie finding her hand drifting back into Linda's almost as soon as her bike is parked and locked in its space. Not that Kara 2.0 seems at all upset by the move. If anything, she's intrigued by it even blushing a little as she lets Maggie lead the way over to the elevator.

Maggie's hand drops from her own as soon as the pair reach her floor. Thanks to her enhanced hearing Linda can already pick up on the happy whines of a dog the closer they get to Maggie's apartment. Maggie herself seems more relaxed as well as she fumbles for her keys. Linda catches them for her when she inevitably drops them in her own excitement.

'Thanks." Her dude whispers taking them back from Linda's outstretched hand.

The door already opens for them however showing a disheveled yet happy young woman around Alex's age standing in the doorway. "Thought so." She smiles stepping out of the way quickly as Linda is tugged into the apartment fast the door closed and locked before she could really get her bearings. Good thing too considering not a half-second later Maggie is set on by an energetic whirl of happy barks and eagerly given kisses.

"Oh, yeah Rory, Mommy missed you too sweetie." Maggie coughed seeming to take the greeting in stride as she finishes settling herself into a seated position on the floor.

"Pitbull shepherd mix. Isn't she a beauty?" Linda can only node in answer trying not to somehow trip over the air itself while the rather beautiful young woman Linda had yet to be introduced to helps her maneuver around them into the apartments small living room. "Dang. Has anyone ever told you, you look a heck of a lot like Supergirl?" She gushed once she'd gotten a good look at Linda in the low lighting of the room.

Red Daughter hesitates at the question, but Maggie is there for a save despite still being detained by rogue puppy kisses. "She gets that a lot actually. Jamie this is my friend Linda. Just got in this afternoon. She's helping me with a new case at the moment." Linda let out a low breath realizing a little late that it was a bit on the cold side when Jamie shivered and rubbed a hand over her uncovered arm muttering about a sudden cold chill. "Lin this is my puppy sitter, technology and lab assistant wiz and thankfully on a night like this my next wall neighbor Jamie."

"What did I somehow lose my best friend title at some point today?" Jamie pouts making Maggie laugh and reach over to playfully punch her in the leg (really, she couldn't reach any higher from her current position.) "Shut up Geek."

"Love you too Shrinky Dink." Linda laughed aloud at the sister like banter that reminded her so much of the kinds she saw between Alex and Kara back home.

It's a soft pawing at her legs that draws the Kasinen's eyes toward the floor.

Maggie's dog was now sitting obediently at her side sniffing eagerly at the leg of her borrowed pajamas. "Hello, little one." Linda felt safe using her native tongue on the animal seeing as Maggie and Jamie were too busy joking with one another at the moment to pay them any mind.

Rory's pink tongue lolled out of the corner of her mouth as she reared up on her back legs bracing her paw against Lind's leg as she stretched up still sniffing intently at her clothes while also eagerly seeking attention. When she and Jamie are finished with their bickering Linda will ask if Maggie knew how the pup had lost her right front leg.

The small one had said already hinted she'd found the adorable dog without a home on the Gotham streets but Linda wonders if that was the whole story. Although, going by the scaring Linda guesses she won't like the answer, but for now, she was content to show the dog as much affection as she could.

Taking a page from Kara's memories Linda kneels cautiously her hand outstretched as she'd seen Alex show her sister on many occasions when the two were young when they greeted a new dog. To her surprise, the dog in front of her doesn't seem bothered by the little tremors of nervousness making her hands shake.

Instead, Rory gave a bark that could only be described as recognition sending her running toward Linda's chest burrowing her head against the stunned alien's stomach.

"Wha…. oh, come on Ror. You just met her and you're already letting her give belly rubs? With me it took what two solid weeks?"

Maggie only laughed at her friend's overly wounded expression the longer the dog on Linda's lap preened at the tenderly given attention she was being given. "Okay well how about you two hang out here while Ror comes and helps Mommy pack for her mini-vacation."

Linda had made a quick warning call to Eliza before they'd left the lot that ended in the Danvers monarch insisting Maggie stay for at least a night maybe two with her at the house. Give the pair a chance to catch up on what was going on in each other's lives and Eliza was more than alright with the company.

"Honestly Maggie, you can even bring the dog if you like."

As much as Maggie wanted to, she'd shut down that offer. Rory was more like Maggie in that regard in that neither wasn't exactly keen on what some say was the safest way to travel. She knew if Linda was anything like Kara, she would never in a trillion years think of dropping her dog mid-flight, but she wasn't going to risk her puppy baby getting airsick on her.

The pair had just disappeared into the back bedroom when a growl that wasn't from the low volume tv sounded making Jamie look over at the yet to sit down visitor. "Oh, are you hungry?" the puppy chow hadn't lasted the elevator ride to the precinct parking lot.

Reluctantly, seeing as her stomach was continuing to betray her Linda nodes. "Here." Jamie offers digging around in her backpack for a few seconds before holding out a small sandwich-like object wrapped in clear and purple plastic. Linda eyes it with both curiosity and caution. This young woman's kind energetic nature reminded her so much of Mikhail it was almost like a physical wound.

"Yeah, I know I like the strawberry kind the best too, but the sores always seem to be out of them." The twenty-something woman sighs turning her attention back to what was going on, on the screen.

"Really Ja, an Uncrustable?" Maggie joked pausing on her way to the bathroom to pick up her toothbrush with Rory right by her side while Linda unwraps the offering with curious fingers examining it from every angle. "What they are amazing _and _vegan so even you can have one." Jamie defends finding the new girl's analysis of the simple sandwich incredibly amazing that she'd even started filming it on her phone.

"Okay, I'm trusting you two to not completely trash my place while I take my girl out for a few minutes to stretch her paws." Maggie announces already kneeling to clip on Rory's leash as she drops her overnight bag on to the counter.

"Okay, this is too fun. I'm making you a strawberry one for comparison." Jamie laughed seeing Linda's grinning expression as she finishes off the snack-sized sandwich.

Linda nodes with a soft "Yes please." In agreement. It's not until Jamie's eyes meet Linda's again that the Kasnien realizes she'd said those two words in her more native tongue.

"Wow cute and multilingual." Jamie blushes turning away toward the kitchen.

It's only a splash of bright orange against the dark black of the bag that catches Linda's eye making her pause for a second look. She'd seen that shirt before from Kara's memories. More to the point of the times when her literal twin sister had literally dropped in on their Alex and her new girlfriend leaving usually Maggie to scramble into the very shirt she was holding rather than face a red-cheeked super without some form of covering.

"Oh, hey you found it. The shirt that gave Ror her name."

Linda is ashamed to say she let out a surprised squeak at the sudden voice at her elbow. "Sorry. Yeah, Mags said I should like wear a bell or something. I'm like a ninja." Jamie grins setting down a freshly made strawberry and peanut butter sandwich. Linda returns it but can't make herself let go of the shirt she'd pulled from Maggie's overnight bag.

Neon orange with fading yellow lettering. 'Hello Sunshine'

"I was wondering where Mags hide the original. The one she lets Ror lay on then use as chew toy is way too new, but the little devil princess doesn't seem to know the difference."

"Rory. Short for Aurora." When Linda still hadn't caught on Jamie spelled it out farther this time pointing to the shirt in Linda's hands. "It's another name for sunshine. Or in this case the dawn but that is a form of sunshine, so it works out."

Linda hastily but gently tucked the shirt back into the bag this time zipping it up when she heard the sounds of Maggie stepping out of the elevator.

"Works every time." Maggie smiles shifting a now asleep Rory in her arms as Linda closes the door behind her. "Now let's go before I change my mind." She sighs still rocking the sleeping pup in her arms.


	6. Chapter 6

Not for the first time, that night did Alex regret turning Kara down on flying her over to spend a little more time with her mother.

Despite what had been predicted earlier in the night that led to her decision to cancel whatever it was hadn't happened. Well apart from a few minor things over the police waves but nothing that would require any 'super' attention.

It was unnerving.

Like some weird calm before a huge storm. A storm Alex didn't want to be unprepared for.

To add to her unease, she still didn't know where Linda had gotten to. She'd tried texting her 'other younger sister' but didn't get an answer and her calls went the same way. Dropped to voicemail. After the twelfth time Alex had given up concluding that her youngest sister's phone had been turned off for some reason and deciding instead to activate her sister's DEO locator. That plan almost had her back to some semblance of calm until she remembered that Linda hadn't gotten her own yet.

As soon as she'd been stable enough for that kind of thing to take they'd already moved her to be closer to Eliza.

"I'm saying this as nice as I can. You need to calm down about this, Alex. I'm sure Linda is fine."

In her defense, Alex had, in fact, tried to set her mind at ease while she and Kelly chatted over a vending machine snack break, but it just seeping back into her mind. The dreaded unknown. The fear something was wrong.

It was like she was back when Kara had been literally off-world. No idea where she was or if she was okay. The same nervous energy buzzing in her system threatening to overwhelm her at any moment. Only this time it wouldn't be Maggie she blew up at. Alex still remembered all too clearly how losing her temper had almost cost her Maggie.

But at the same time, it had strangely brought them even closer in the end.

A strong grip on her upper arm jolts her back to herself "Hey, I get your just trying to look out for her because she's a twin of a sister you already have, but I also know that since she is the literal twin of Supergirl that Red Daughter can take care of herself." Kelly reminded pulling Alex in for a calming hug. Although why Alex now looked like Kelly had just asked to leave during the high point of an action movie was a bit puzzling.

After clearing her throat and seeming to be shaking something out of her head Alex answers. "I know. I know. I really do but every time I go down to at least get one of the guys to track Lin's phone for me Winn cuts in. It's like he knows something, but he just won't tell me what it is." She was thinking of some light threatening later in the night. Just to make sure his time in the future hadn't dulled her ability to intimidate him when she needed to.

After all, Winn had insisted on staying after talking Brainy into going home with Nia for the night so he'd all but volunteered for a little harmless threatening.

"Hey hey hey now. None of that." Kelly scolded with a joking laugh as if reading Alex's mind. "No maiming the techno-nerd." She reiterates following Alex's sightline into the control room below.

Just then Winn happened to look up at them from his chair in the control center's hub and despite the distance, Alex could see him sending her a wary kind of smile and a little wave as their eyes met. The little twitch of his hand against the keyboard was all the answer she needed.

"Still got it." The DEO director grins returning the gesture with a pleased smile of her own.

Beside her, Kelly rolls her eyes with a little shake of the head and a smile as she looked between the two. "Alright then. I'm going to head home."

Alex nodes her fingers still fisted in the material of her tactical shirt. "Yeah. Of course." She turns on her heels while Kelly collects her jacket.

She spots Winn coming around the corner from the direction of what passes for a cafeteria almost as soon as the elevator doors close and Kelly's car heads down to the lobby. Alex's feels her jaw tick in annoyance at how calm he is when Linda is still technically missing yet here he was distracted by something on his phone.

"Oh, Alex you have got to see this. Honestly, she's just so adorable it's almost criminal." Winn gushes turning the phone just in time for Alex to see a mix breed puppy a pitbull and some kind of shepherd if she had to guess bounding toward the camera after a spectacularly rolling bound into a pile of different colored leaves.

Alex can't help but smile as she takes the phone from his outstretched hand running the clip back to the beginning for the full effect.

She hasn't really watched the full clip and already she wants to kidnap that dog for her own.

Surprising her again was the lack of any kind of running commentary from whoever was filming, but whoever it was had a rather beautiful laugh as they track the eager pups progress in making leaping jumps into the air to catch the falling leaves. The sight made all the more adorable when Alex noted the pup only had the use of three legs.

_"Get the leaf Rory that's a good girl."_

Someone who wasn't the one doing the filming coaxed

Alex quietly hoped Rory was just a nickname because just looking at that cute face leaping around like a bunny to try and entangle whoever was filming, she would have gone with a more sun-related name.

How could she not with the happy shine in those big puppy eyes?

One a whiskey chocolate the other a light sky blue.

The video pauses most likely so the filmier can untangle themselves.

Once it starts up again a small yellow and black something that squeaks was tossed into the newly made leaf mound

"_Go get the bat Ror. Go get him."_

Alex lets out a breath of a laugh at that while on the screen Rory takes off sending leaves flying as she dives headlong into the colorful pile.

It's not until the long clip stopped that Alex notices, she feels a lot better than she had before. Calmer.

"Can you send that the three of us? I think Kar and Lin will get a real kick out of it."

Winn nodes taking his phone back and making a few quick taps. "Lin was the one that sent it to me." he even pulls up the time stamp as proof.

Rather than blow up at that newly acquired information Alex turned on her heels and walked away not giving her brother of a friend any time to tell her anything else while already pulling out her phone to replay Rory's video on her way back to the main hub.

She ended up in the lab. One thing she'd missed since taking the top job. The buzz of the lab. The relative safety of its walls. Now she was lucky to walk into it to have someone else double-check the analysis on something they found in the field before she finished up a report.

She's not really working. Everything has already been taken care of for the day.

Now she's just drinking in the clam she finds from being here. Like she used to have when she was younger sitting on her surfboard as the calm waves rolled around her while she watched the sun either rise or set. Or when she was curled up next to Maggie in those moments, they'd catch some time for themselves after pulling long hours at their respective jobs.

"You should have gone with her."

Alex didn't turn around from her contemplation of a computer screen. Even when said screen wasn't turned on not that the newcomer was surprised at that. "I'm serious Alex. For once the city is relatively quiet and if anything does come up, you're a call away. Take the night off."

"Kelly is probably already asleep by now. No need to wake her up." Alex waves off, but she can see in his reflection that J'onn shakes his head. "Not Kelly, Alex. I'm talking about Kara."

That has Alex turning around. "Kara."

J'onn nodes. "If you hurry, we can still make it before they start on desert."

He can tell without the use of his abilities that she wants to accept yet she shakes her head turning back to the window. "Not until I know where my other sister is. Kara said she was going to Mom's but Lin…" Alex lets out a slow breath trying not to think of any unsavory scenarios. It wasn't like she was trying to stress herself out, but Linda was just as much her sister as Kara. She needed to be protected just like Kara maybe even more so.

With a sigh, J'onn pulls out his phone pulling up another video for her to watch this one of Kara catching some impressive waves at the beach not far from Alex's childhood home as the sunset.

_"Alright, alright stop showing off already Snowy it's almost time for dinner."_

Alex laughs at the pout in her sister's voice as the clip cuts off to Linda's pleased smile as she paddles back toward the shore.

"She's getting good." J'onn smiles pocketing his phone. Alex grins at the unspoken praise in his voice. "She's an eager student. Actually listens, unlike Kara."

They both laugh at that "She listens Alex. She just chooses not to go along more than she should." That has Alex giggling harder as she gets up stretching her arms over her head to work out the stiffness.

"I'll drop you off then come right back. It's not like I'm unfamiliar with how this place works."

Alex smiles at his offer pulling her Space Dad in for a long hug. "Thanks, J'onn."

J'onn's arms are strong against her back as he hugs her back. "Any time, Earth daughter."

As promised J'onn sets her down right at the end of the walkway up to the front door. "You sure you don't want to come in? Say hi?"

After a short pause as he thought over her invitation J'onn smiles. "I guess I could stay. For a little while at least." He agrees.

Yet the pair had barely cleared the door when they were both pulled into the living room but strong hands narrowly missing being pelted by different colored soft made bullets.

"Oh, good we could use some reinforcements. These two together are quiet the power team." Eliza sighs sharing a laugh with Linda while she and her partner in crime high fived the praise.

"Would be better if I could use my powers." Kara pouted

"Our powers." Linda corrected shaking her head. "This is a fair fight, Kara Danvers. Skill on skill like chess match." She reminds folding her arms over her chest while keeping a tight hold on the toy nurf gun in her hand.

Kara's eye roll was canceled by her warm smile she shared with her twin "Oh we are so watching that later."

A little crinkle appears on Linda brow as she shifts in Kara's memories before she smiles wide in agreement. "With that butter corn yes?"

Kara laughs as she nodes. "Popcorn. Oh yeah. Can't have a movie night with it."

Eliza raises an eyebrow at J'onn behind Kara's back asking a silent question that the Martian didn't need to read her mind to hear. He inclines his head in answer then shakes his head a fraction when her eyes shift to the two other women beside them while her adoptive daughters talked between themselves.

Alex was frozen in place behind the woman yet to move away from her guarded stance in front of the DEO Director. True her body has gained a noticeable amount of muscle tone since she'd last felt it against her own but there no mistaking those curves.

"M…Maggie?"

The shorter woman starts at her name as if she'd forgotten who she was standing in front of while she listened to the Kryptonian twins chatting together.

Eliza and J'onn peek out at them from the kitchen both of them apprehensive at the reunion. In his defense, J'onn had been more interested in listening to the laughter of his newest 'daughter' to think about listening to anyone's thoughts as they neared the house. He hadn't had the pleasure of meeting Linda himself yet. Needless to say. He was actually a little nervous about it. Otherwise, he'd have warned Alex about the other person in the house before he'd let her open the door.

"She is my guest. I invited her to dinner." Linda jumps in but Alex has yet to look away as her ex turns to face her.

For a moment they just stood drinking the other in. Noting some changes in the other in their time apart.

With a slight tremble in her hand, Alex reaches out. She almost expects the other woman to disappear as soon as her hand moved but she didn't. Maggie mirrors her move meeting her halfway.

Her hand is just as rough and warm as she remembered as it closes against her own.

Maggie lets one of her lighter smiles grace her lips as she looks from their now joined hands to Alex's eyes. Not quite one of her full dimpled ones but it was enough to send Alex's heart doing a small flip at being able to see again.

"Long time no see Danvers."

"Yeah, long time Sawyer."


	7. Chapter 7

They'd set it up under the pretext of going out for the desert Linda, Maggie and J'onn had chosen after winning the mock shooting match. Really it was just a chance for the newly reunited exs to talk in relative peace or as much as they could get considering they were in a house with not one, but three super hearing aliens and a Martian who could read minds.

It was only the duel warning looks from both versions of their Mother that kept the 'super twins' from following them on their walk to the beach. But not before one of the blondes pulled one of them aside with an adorably fearful expression akin to a skittish puppy.

"Promise me now. Regardless of what is said between you that you still stay with us?" Linda asks in a low whisper catching Maggie's arm as the shorter woman reached for her jacket.

Maggie smiles at the genuine concern in the other woman's eyes. Really, she'd only know this version of Kara for less than a full day and already she just wants to wrap the young woman in a warm blanket and hide her away from the evils of the world.

It wasn't until she noticed the reflection in a hallways mirror of her twin not so stealthily peeking over at them when Kara was meant to be talking with J'onn that she found that concern was shared between the two Kryptonians. Linda had of course been hoarding most of Maggie's time since she arrived, but Kara had always seemed to be hovering close by.

It was such a difference from how they'd first saw one another.

"Just as long as the three of us can build a blanket fort in the living room and I can pick the movie."

Linda is already nodding in agreement before Maggie's full request was made. "Da, whatever you want." The Kansan answers seeming to be blinking away happy tears as she accepts the hug Maggie pulls her in for.

"Then I'm coming back." The detective smiles as she steps away to pull on her trusty leather jacket.

"Hey, you ready Mags?"

Unbidden Maggie's traitor heart speeds up at the question, yet that could just be because of how close Alex was standing against her back while she too stops at the coat rack for her own jacket. It was like Alex hadn't even realized she'd said anything out of the ordinary. Like for a moment they were still together and haven't been broken up for nearly two full years now.

"Uh…Yeah…yeah just a second." Maggie agrees shaking herself out of those kinds of thought as she turns to the other blonde-haired alien hovering by the door.

Neither said anything as they embraced. Right now, they didn't need to in order to understand what the other was trying to convey.

Alex's curious puppy look had Maggie wishing she could easily get to a camera, but she waves her off. "No more stalling we have two hungry Kryptonians to fed." If any of the other three picks up on the subtle crack in her voice they don't say anything "Let's go get these ladies some victory ice cream."

Kara and Alex flinch with twin whines of "gross." While Linda smiles at the reminder.

"I still can't believe she talked you into trying that stuff." Alex grumbles with a shudder "So gross."

Maggie crosses her arms her eyebrow raises as she catches her ex's eye. But she holds back on voicing anything considering how those particular memories of the time she'd gotten Alex to not only try for the first time but also admit to liking vegan ice cream where both too painful to fully remember considering they were no longer in a romantic relationship and mostly because they were too private for the sensitive ears of the duel Superwomen currently standing on either side of them.

Going by the color rising up Alex's neck however, she was remembering them too. Well, that and the pointed cough they were getting from the mind reader currently hiding out in the kitchen with Eliza and Alura. The caught no longer a couple, couple both directed a guilty "Sorry Papa Bear" toward the kitchen at the same time making the twin Kara's grin like cats just given fresh cream.

"Alright, no more of this standing around. Go for ice cream please." Linda says playfully shooing them toward the door that Kara was holding open for them. "And Al don't forget to try and sneak in some of the actual good stuff before you get back."

"Kara no. Your sister's team won fairly, and you agreed to the terms of the victors choosing the dessert item before the game began." Alura scolds from the kitchen making sure to talk loudly enough that those without super hearing could hear her.

"You heard her Alexandra." They hear Eliza add before Maggie can finish tugging a pouting Alex out the door.

If anyone asks them later they will swear that the reason they don't drop the other's hand as they weave their way down the darkened side streets is so Maggie won't get lost while Alex leads the way to the town beach with only the moonlight and her own knowledge of her hometown to guide her.

"How much you want to bet the 'super twins' are listening in on us right now?" Maggie wonders aloud the second Alex's hand drops from her own as she slides her hands into the pockets of her jacket before the chill of the water can chase away the lingering warmth from her fingers.

Alex laughs aloud sounding so free and content in one sound and Maggie quietly hates how just being able to hear it again still melts her heart. "Oh, no doubt. Probably sitting together on the couch pretending to be watching something. Maybe splitting a bowl of popcorn like we're the newest drama series."

This time its Maggie's turn to laugh at the image now forming in her head at the comment.

"I still can't believe that Lin can be a literal clone of Kara, yet she can't stand the taste of potstickers."

The mischievous spark in Alex's eyes brings with it more treasured memories of their shared past, but Maggie shuts it down in order to return her smile with a playful wink.

"I know she loves pizza just as much as Kara, but when it comes to take out tastes those two are like polar opposites." Then she pauses thinking something over before adding. "unless it involves stealing my chicken fried rice."

Maggie giggles at that. "No, say it isn't so. Not your chicken fried rice."

That had them both dissolving into giggling laughter while they walked side by side down the beach. Their shoes and socks already discarded in favor of feeling the still warmed sand under their toes.

Already they could hear their phones pinging in their pockets with incoming messages but neither made a move to answer or even check who they were from.

"So, Linda kind of already filled me in on your new girlfriend." Maggie admits her hands fisted deeper in her jacket pockets as she rips on the 'she's moved on' band-aid.

It's only because she knows her so well that she picks up on Alex's shoulders tensing up, yet her face remained natural while Maggie chuckles under her breath at the mild annoyance in the scoffed "Of course she did."

"So, an Olsen huh?" Maggie keeps going already feeling the nonexistent salt seeping into her own Alex created wounds.

"Kelly." Alex nodes. "And it's not that serious. We're still getting to know one another." She shrugs feeling rather guilty in talking about her new girlfriend with the woman that at one point had been her fiancée.

She still has both their rings. She keeps them on a chain. The same one hanging around her neck at that very moment. She'd tried not wearing them, but at the same time, she just felt so naked without the comforting feel of them under her shirt that she'd started to see them as a kind of good luck charm.

"I know you Danvers. 'getting to know one another' already means kissing."

Rather than answer Alex chooses to change the subject as she stops in order to pick up a rock and watch it skip across the water. "What about you?"

Maggie exhales slowly thinking over her answer a shy smile spreading across her lips, "Actually, there is one special lady in my life."

Alex's hands clench against the inner lining of her jacket pocket, but Maggie's eyes are fixed on the rolling waves to notice. Not that she had a right to be jealous or anything. She'd been the one to end things so she should be happy Maggie's found someone to take her place.

"I'm telling you, Danvers, the two of you would absolutely love one another."

"Oh yeah?" Alex was only a little upset with herself for not paying closer attention to what her companion had been saying to have a better comeback than that.

Maggie nodes playfully nudging Alex's shoulder as they make another path down the short line this time in the opposite direction. "Just ask Lin. She's met her already and let me tell you I almost had a theft on my hands she was so smitten."

That she wasn't ready for. How could her sister not tell her something as important as her ex-fiancée meeting the obvious love of her life? At least she could have given Alex some kind of warning to the new woman in Maggie's life before flying her back into it.

"Trust me on this Alex." There was something in her eyes that made Alex wish she'd elaborate farther not only on who this new mystery woman was now Alex was paying better attention, but so explain why Maggie believes so strongly that she would somehow want to be friends with the new woman that had taken her place in Maggie's heart. "God, Al, I just—I just love her so much. She's my little ray of sunshine." And she does. Alex can hear it plain as day in her voice as her ex unleashes the full power of her gorgeous smiles. Maggie is utterly in love with this new woman. Maybe even more in love than she had been when they were together.

Possibly, but Alex hopes she's wrong as she plasters on what she hopes is a friendly smile as Maggie's eyes meet her own. "That's great Mags. I'm so happy for you."

Maggie smiles then glances at her watch with a disappointed sigh. "We…. we should go get that ice cream soon. You know before the super duo starts attaching the drapes at your Moms."

Although she selfishly wanted to prolong her time with Maggie a little longer Alex nods in agreement. "Yeah. I guess so."

Again, their hands gravitate toward one another after they'd slipped their shoes and socks back on and had started back toward civilization.

Yet the pair had barely made it around the corner from the beach when a green and black van pulled up out of nowhere. The side door already opened while six burly looking thugs in ski masks poured out three tackling Alex while the other three fly at Maggie.

"Hurry up." The driver barked also in a mask while Alex struggles to help her ex as the three manage to drag the fighting detective toward the waiting van. It only takes one shock from a taser to make Maggie go limp against her attackers.

The triple whooshes of arriving super speeders has Alex grinning despite the terror spreading over her as she has to watch her ex being tossed into the van like a rag doll, but that soon turned to horror when what she'd originally thought was just an oddly chosen paint job on the side of the van started to glow a brighter shade of green each time one of the three Kryptonian's tried to go near it.

"You keep moving and your girls' brains paint the sidewalk."

Alex hadn't thought the others would have actually let Eliza come with them but she could see her mom now falling back with Linda and Alura to a safer distance as the cool metal from a gun burial it pressed closer against the side of her head while Kara struggles forward only to be sent flying backward by a blast from a waiting gun firing a consecrated blast of the deadly green rock.

"It's the Martian. Blast 'em."

J'onn had been watching them from the skies no doubt looking for a weak point only to be knocked out of the sky by a second blast from the same weapon that had taken Kara out of the game.

God, whoever had planned this attack had done some serious homework. That knowledge just had Alex struggling harder against the unrelenting arms holding her down against the pavement.

Yet just as soon as the attack had started it was over with the van vanishing into the night like a phantom.

* * *

**Author Note:**

Please don't hurt me. I may be the one writing this but even I didn't see that coming, and before you ask no Maggie was in no way in on her own kidnapping. She had no idea that would happen to her. Her checking the time wasn't some kind of sign she was waiting for something to happen she was just checking the time to remind herself and Alex of the world outside their own little bubble of togetherness.


	8. Chapter 8

She hadn't known where else to go. She couldn't stand seeing her Alex so upset as she paced the halls of her mother's house on the phone with Vasquez trying to get a head start on tracking down whoever had taken her ex-fiancée. The worry in her sister's voice was like a green glowing knife between Linda's ribs.

Although she wants so much to stay and help Linda fleas the fazed house as soon as she felt strong enough to fly. Yet everywhere she can think of to hide just reminds her in some way of how she'd been too weak to protect her friends to protect her family. Everywhere that is accept here.

Here she still felt accepted. Maybe even….loved.

She just hopes she will be welcome as she uses the last of her ebbing strength to make the trip.

Her landing is soundless and for a moment she stands quietly gazing at the beauty inside the warmly light apartment. After a few more seconds to gather her courage Linda taps on the window glass as soon as the black-haired beauty's head turned however Linda feels another wave of sadness washing over her causing her to drop her chin in shame.

The opening of the doors to the balcony surprises her.

"What do you want Kara?"

The hard bite of the greeting brings more tears spilling from Linda's eyes, but she keeps her head down too ashamed to face the anger she knew would be waiting in those memorizing eyes. It's only the whispered break of "Snowbird?" that has watery blue eyes peeking up to find beautiful emerald green.

"I wasn't strong enough."

Strong arms encircle her in seconds and Linda melts into them like ice on a hot day. Drinking in the strength and comfort she feels second only to the safety the true Alex brings. "I wasn't strong en…." she tries again only to be shushed into silence by the beautiful angel holding her.

"Come inside then we'll talk alright."

Linda shakes her head already she can hear her family wondering where she'd got to also making plans to head back to the DEO. "We need to go Maggie needs us."

Lena's arms didn't drop but she does lean away to meet Linda's eyes "Maggie?"

Linda nodes her legs threatening to buckle under her. "Snowy, have you been around kryptonite in the last hour?" Of course, the keen-eyed beauty would notice the lingering lines of green under the collar of Linda's shirt.

"The men in black…they used it against us…."

Lena fights back asking any the flood of questions filling her mind as she helps the shaking super into her apartment. "Let's get you out of the cold then we can talk about what happened to Maggie." She offers already bracing for a fight. Linda surprises her by only nodding along with her words.

After guiding Linda to the couch and making sure she was wrapped up in not the long cap she brought with her like a security blanket but also the softest of the blankets Lena could easily find without leaving her friend alone Lena heads into the kitchen to get her warn out snowbird a snack. A holdover from all the times Kara would show up at her place late at night but Lena pushes those thoughts away as she watches Linda pick up the discarded paper and pen Lena had left from doing some late-night crosswords before bed.

"Mind helping me out with that last clue?" Lena says conversationally while she waits for the microwave to finish heating up a few choice bites of the leftovers from her early dinner. "For the life of me, I can't seem to get it." She laughs hunting in her refrigerator for a drink for the both of them. She settles on chocolate milk for Linda and a glass of wine for herself. "Lin?" despite not getting an answer Lena feels a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth when she looks over to find the Kara double intently concentrated on the crossword.

"Hey, Lee Lee." Lena hums carrying the items over to the couch with relative ease.

"Huh?" Linda answers without lifting her eyes from the half-folded newspaper he had proper up against her legs.

"Don't tell me you've already solved it." Lena laughs setting the plate and glasses down on the coffee table.

"Solved what?" Linda asks the picture of confused adorableness in Lena's eyes while she absently chews on the end of the pen top. The move is so like Kara that Lena has to take a few slow breaths to keep angry tears from pooling in her eyes.

"Let me take that while you start in on this and tell me what happened with Maggie." Lena suggests sliding the paper from Linda's lap and replacing it with the plate of warmed food.

Linda recoils at the reminder almost spilling the milky chocolate drink Lena offered her onto the snow-white sofa. "She promised to come back. She said she would after she and Alex talked. We listened but only for a few moments. We wanted them to have some kind of privacy. Then Kara heard it. Alex's heartbeat was stronger, a frightened beat."

Lena winces at the fear behind the words. Already her fingers itch to pull the trembling blonde into her arms to hide her away from anything dangerous or wicked about the world.

"Alex was already down when we arrived and Maggie. She fought like a тигр so wild." Lena smiles despite herself. Of all the animals she could name a tiger wasn't exactly at the top of her list when thinking of the feisty detective. A wolverine maybe but not a tiger.

"The green pain rock kept us from helping then they threatened our Alex. They had a gun on her. At her head." Linda shudders as if she was reliving the sight of her sister at gunpoint in her head. "Papa tried to help, but they blast him out of the sky. Then I couldn't see Maggie anymore. I tried to go to the van, but the green pain gun kept me back."

"Who were they Lin. Who took her?"

Rather than answer around the bite of food in her mouth Linda uses her fork to point to the paper Lena had set back on the table as she reaches for her the wine glass beside it.

As soon as her eyes landed on the rough outline Linda had drawn over the unfinished crossword the half-empty wine glass falls from Lena's fingers. "How is that possible? They were disbanded as soon as my mother was put in jail."

Linda shrugs her shoulders her head tilted to the side like Kara would do from time to time in what Lena now knew to be her listening in on something only someone with super hearing could detect. "Kara and Papa bear has returned to the DEO. They found Maggie's phone smashed where the van the men in black used was abandoned." She relays.

"Just because it was smashed doesn't mean they couldn't still try to use it to track her." Lena points out going back to the kitchen for a dish towel to sop up the spilled wine while Linda cracks what could be considered a smile as she finishes up the last bits of the mini-meal Lena had given her. "Winn says the same thing to Alex right now."

Lena was about to ask something else when Linda's head tillites to the side again when her keener hearing picks up something Lena couldn't. For the second time that night Lena feels a sucker punch right to her heart at the breathtaking smile now spreading over Linda's lips.

"Have they found something?"

Linda shakes her head in denial, but her smile didn't waver listening in again on whatever was being talked about at the DEO. "Jamie."

Rather than ask who this Jamie person was Lena heads back to the kitchen for a refill of their drinks. "What?" Lena questions as soon as she comes back seeing a broken look pass over Linda's eyes as she pulls her blanket tighter around her shoulders. "Lin, what is it?"

"Mom had to finish telling Jamie what was going on when Alex couldn't." A phantom pang of sympathetic pain pulled at Lena's heart for her former friend. After all, they may have called it off and Alex was already seeing someone new, but she and Maggie had been engaged once upon a time. A love like that wasn't easily forgotten.

"Alright." Lena prompts at the wide smile spreading over Linda's lips whoever this Jamie was she was obviously saying something interesting. "What's Jamie saying now?" Lena nudges with a smile of her own. Kara's smiles were always so infections meaning Linda's were just as contagious.

"She says they will come….. Kara"

Despite having done her best to repress her feelings when it came to Kara Danvers or her Super alter ego for that matter Lena can feel the start of worry creeping into her system at the concern in the blonde's voice.

"No, Kara Danvers, you go lay down now. You need rest."

For once Lena was glade Linda was too preoccupied in the resulting argument that followed with her equally superpowered twin across town than listening to the uptick in speed that had become Lena's heartbeat at the sound of the Kaznian words coming from the blonde's lips.

The show of anger was made even cuter when her riled up snow puppy gives one of Kara's adorably aggravated huff and pulls out her phone when it seemed simply using her powers to talk with her 'twin sister' wasn't enough to get her point across while Lena crosses to a slide closet for a coat have already pocketed her car keys..

"Come on Snowy, you can yell at them from the car." Lena coxes before her companion can do more than pull up one of the numbers in the phone's contacts her hand sliding smoothly into Linda's before she'd realized what she was doing.

Linda seemed just as surprised by the move looking down at their joined hands then up into Lena's eyes and back again to their hands as if she expects the contact to break at any second.

It doesn't. In fact, it only grows stronger the longer she watches.

"We have two other stops to make first possibly three depending on how the first goes then we'll meet with the others at the DEO and work out a plan on getting Maggie back." Linda nodes along with what the other woman is saying while taking the time to burn the feel of Lena's hand in her own into her memories as the raven-haired woman leads the way toward the private elevator.


	9. Pandora

She'd been on edge ever since they left the lab.

How could she not when this was just another example of something, she'd intended to help people was instead used to harm them or mainly to harm the ex-fiancée of a former friend. Lena was so upset about what would end up being her role in this that she almost forgot about the last stop she'd intended to make before going to help in any way she could to find her kidnapped friend.

It was so adorable that regardless of the fear they both felt over what was going on that a simple trip to a fast-food diner could bring out one of Kara's heart-stopping bright smiles. Then again at her core, Linda was Kara so anything that involved food was a fast track to making her smile.

"I'm serious Lin. Get whatever you want." She reiterates seeing the reserved look in Linda's eyes as they waited for their turn to order. Linda blushes pink under Lena's kind gaze turning her attention back to the choices while her hand finds its way back into Lena's while they wait.

Whatever she wanted turned out to be three orders of everything on the kid's menu, but Lena just smiles at her encouraging then places an order of her own first for herself then one for everyone Linda said would be waiting for them at the DEO.

Surprisingly it only takes two trips to the car to get everything packed away. Linda insisting on doing most of the work herself, so the sun was just starting to rise by the time the car pulls up to the not so secret government agency.

"You really like chocolate huh?" Lena comments watching in awe as the cute alien sitting in the passenger seat finishes off the second of the three orders of chocolate pancakes. Linda's answer was a wide chocolate smudged grin that would soon end up becoming Lena's newest background on her phone before Linda licked it all away.

They only return Kelly's offer to help with twin friendly smiles and shakes of the head. "You go ahead. Alex could use the distraction." Linda adds she'd already warmed Lena that her super sister was grudgingly resting up under heat lamps under her birth mother's watchful gaze. J'onn was laying down as well but Linda had to admit she couldn't tell from his heartbeat if he was really asleep or not. Eliza was arguing with her own daughter while Alex and Winn continue to hunt for some way to track their detecting needle when they had no way to know where the haystack was.

Lena then had to explain what that meant while Linda was left wondering if the men dressed in black had somehow turned her friend into an actual needle.

"God, that woman sure loves her paperwork."

Both hesitate in the middle of the lobby their eyes scanning the relatively empty space for the source of the grumbling complaint.

They find her trying to rub some circulation back into her hand as she and her boss stepped out of the HR offices of the DEO. "I mean seriously we're still coming off jet lag and we have to do more paperwork than they needed to get into old Arkham? I mean hello, I get the secrecy and all but we're kind of on a major time crunch here."

"You mean you're still coming off jet lag, don't you?" Kate corrects typing away at something on her phone before tucking it into a pocket of her leather jacket. "Also, you seem to be forgetting J, that one of the reasons we had more work was because your insistence at bringing along our little supernova here." The taller woman sighs as she kneels in order to attach a third visitors pass to the collar of the first speaker's service dog or at last Lena guesses the animal was a service dog going by what she can see of the tactical looking vest it was wearing.

"I wasn't just going to leave her…"

"Rory. Jamie." Linda's happy greeting cuts off the rest of Jamie's words also mixing with Lena's teasing scold of "Come on now Katie that's no way to talk to your brightest lab tech." while Rory's happy barks filled the lobby.

"Strawberries. Didn't think we'd see you here yet." Jamie greets whipping away the yet to be shed angry tears from her eyes as Linda and Lena draw closer.

"I didn't know the DEO allowed dogs." It had been the first thing that came into her head after walking up on such a tense standoff. Three sets of eyes turned at the same instant making Lena wish she could take them back, but it was Kate who answered. "They decided to make an acceptation for her." she smiles with an affectionate ruffle of Rory's fur adding a curt "Luthor." In greeting as she stands one Lena mirrors with an equally cool "Kane."

"Need some help with all that?"

Linda nodes happily passing off most of her bags to Kate and the rest to Jamie. Once her hands were free, she was kneeling for a proper kiss filled greeting from Rory. "I miss you too little 'hello sunshine'." She says in between wet kisses.

"Hey, would you mind looking after Rory for us?" Jamie asks seeing how relaxed the dog became under Linda's touch. "I know she misses the sun and the fresh air will do her good after having to wait around while we did paperwork."

Immediately Linda nodes in consent but changes her mind once the see how big of a yawn Rory gives as she settles in against the super's chest. "When Alex comes tell her we go to the…the…. what is the word the…" Linda struggles grasping for the name she'd learned from that Seattle-based doctor show she'd watched with Eliza. She really liked it. Not only did she learn new medical terms it also had a doctor that reminded her a lot of Alex. "the on-call room?"

She makes a mental note to ask Alex later about the stifles giggles her suggestion caused her friends as she carries a now sleeping Rory away from the groaning sounds of the approaching elevator. For all, she knew from the parts Eliza would let her watch of that room before putting the show on mute and holding her hand over her eyes Linda assumed it was just for sleep. Something she and Rory could use at the moment.

"Where is my sister?"

Jamie visibly jumped at the barked question backing up a step or three from the fuming DEO director stepping out of the lift.

"We brought along a plus one that doesn't take to flying very well." Kate explains judging by the shake in her hand Alex was on her tenth cup of strong coffee.

"You're the one from her background."

Looking at her in person with the morning light making a halo of amber around her as it fills the lobby Alex can kind of see why Maggie would think of her new girlfriend as her sunshine.

Kate lets a small smile seep passed her brooding mask as she remembers the picture in question.

Her in the park with Rory on a rare sunny day in Gotham City. Her with a real smile on her lips pinned as she was by her on again off again girlfriend's kiss happy pup. It had been one of the few times Kate had let her guard down and allowed herself to have fun outside of breaking bones as she played with Maggie's dog.

The only warning she'd had that the moment had been captured at all was Maggie's giggling laughter as she clicked away catching the tussling pair from different angles.

"Oh yeah. Mags said she'd changed it recently." She nodes remembering Alex's talk with her vigilantly identity about how the DEO had already tried unsuccessfully to trace Maggie's phone for any kind of lead as to where she may have been taken. "Kate Kane." She introduces holding out her hand.

Rather than take it Alex glances toward Lena and Jamie. "We should get that food packed away before it cools too much."

* * *

"Project Pandora?"

Most of the core group had gathered in the conference room making an acceptation for the recovering aliens and having left Susan in charge while Alex as a little too preoccupied to properly run things that didn't involve finding her ex.

"An L-corp brainchild working in tandem with S.T.A.R. Labs in Gotham to help make a reality." Lena explains "At its core Project Pandora would give those with terminal illness ones one last taste of happiness before they pass away. Consensual probing someone's memories for a perfect day if you will and letting that person relive that better time as before they pass away."

"Repo men much." Winn wonders obviously not realizing he'd asked it aloud while he types away at this computer only to get a hard slap against the back of his head from Jamie.

"Right now, the project is in its infancy stages mainly more idea than anything." Kate jumps in also choosing to ignore Winn's jab after taking a long pull from the coffee cup she'd between batting between her hands.

"And you think that whoever kidnapped Maggie also broke into the L corp files and stole…." Eliza starts to ask her hand closing over Alex's while her daughter takes a weak steadying breath. Not for the first time the worried mother wanted to push her daughter out of the room or at the very least ask Kelly for help in preventing her children blood and adopted alike from having full-on break downs over what was going on.

"Copied more like." Winn interrupted spinning his computer around as proof.

"Yeah, whoever did this knew what they were doing." Jamie agrees with a few keystrokes on her own computer while Winn takes a little break to start in on the eggs and pancake combo Lena had thought to order for him to sooth his growling stomach.

Most of the food Lena had brought had been taken to the break room for when the more superpower members of the team were back in play. The rest had been divided up among the others sitting around the long table.

"Looks like they got in between firewall checks copied the files and got out almost undetected." Kate points out a little impressed with the skill level while looking over at Jamie's computer screen. "And they did it from the Gotham side of the project so that was why L-corp wasn't immediately notified until Lena asked for an over hall of their security files after Maggie's kidnapping." Jamie agrees going more than a little pale at the admission.

"You said they _almost _got out undetected. Was Pandora all they took?" Kelly chimed in sneaking a glance at her girlfriend out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't looking good but asking her to at least slowdown was a recipe for disaster.

"Working on it." Jamie and Winn say together both typing away furiously at their respective computers.

For several quick seconds, the only sounds other than the chatter of computer keys were the staggered breaths and nervous fidgeting from several members around the table.

Jamie's face goes sickly pale. "Oh, God." The lab analyst whispered praying she was reading the rough list wrong as she scrolled back to the top to look it over one more time.

"What? What is it?"

For once Alex doesn't mind that she and Maggie's new girlfriend are in enough of a sync that they ask the same questions at the same time.

Jamie doesn't answer so Winn slides his own computer away and pulls hers closer peering curiously at the screen. "Going by the timestamps it seems that the only other files accessed around the same time as Pandora were the ones related to the digitalized notes and research of a Dr. J Crane and a Dr. P Isley."

"Or as everyone in Gotham knew them. Scarecrow and Poison Ivy." Kate translates already pulling out her phone for a very important phone call.

She just hopes her cousin will answer in time.


	10. Chapter 10

It's the third time she'd gotten her flat on her back that she considers actually injuring her.

"You're holding back."

Of course, she was holding back. Kate wasn't the one she was angry with. Jealous of maybe if she was being honest with herself, but not entirely angry.

Her mother had banned her from her own lab, Vaz was still handling the DEO side of things well enough that Alex didn't need to step back in to her Director role and if what Alura had said was right then Linda was taking a much-needed nap so this was her only option left to take her mind off what could be happening to her ex-fiancée and keep herself out of the medical wing with a stress-induced heart attack.

Alex had to admit that the adrenaline in her system was helping quiet her anxiety, but it did nothing for her guilt. She shouldn't be wasting time fighting with Kate when she should be out hunting those bastards that took her Maggie from her. "What about it?" she grumbles blocking a punch Kate was trying to land against her side.

"What I mean is." Kate smiles using Alex's own momentum to flip her over her shoulder. "Stop holding back." The wind is mostly knocked out of her when she lands again on her back with Kate hovering over her.

"Hey, just be glad our fight club doesn't have a bad monkey like they had the last time I got to go." Kara commented over the headset. Apparently her earlier Supergirl call had finished.

"Again, with the monkey." Alex sighs when Kate pulls her up already circling again letting Alex catch her breath.

"Hey, that was one mean monkey." Kara corrects while the other two listen to Winn's laughter over the coms. "Are you eating the last of _my _chicken fried rice?" Alex asked by way of changing the subject. "Mom said I could have it." Her sister defends in a pout at Alex's annoyed groan at her garbled 'maybe' in answer.

The sisterly banter would have gone on longer had the training room doors not been kicked open by a blur of power.

"Alex?! Alex?"

The worry in Linda's voice was equal parts heartwarming and guilt creating as Alex steps out of her hiding place. In all of this, she hadn't thought of what would happen if her other 'youngest' sister were to wake up to her heart rate galloping against her ribs.

"Easy easy Lin. I'm alright. I'm okay see." Alex jumps in stepping between Kate and her angry bull of a super-powered sister.

"Sorry I got your sister all hot and bothered Superberries, but she needed something to take her mind off what's going on or she would have put herself in the med wing." The Gotham police captain says by way of a greeting and explanation her hands raised in defense as she wisely puts some space between herself and Alex.

"Superberries?" Alex chuckles looking between Linda and Kate while the former's hand slide into her own. The slightly taller woman nodes with a small shrug of her shoulders. "Jamie kind of adopted her when she stopped by our neck of the woods to see Mags." Kate's low chuckle has Alex's eyes sliding back to her as her sister pulls her in for a hug. "I can even show you the video."

"The video?" Alex parrots peeking over at the woman beside holding her hand. Linda didn't say anything but her face colors up as her head dropped to rest against Alex's shoulder. "Everyone else is in the lab." The director adds seeing the puzzled look in those blue eyes she was still getting to know. jealousy evident in her voice as she presses a brush of a kiss against the side of Linda's head.

A loud bark draws all eyes toward the door. Linda dropping to her knees at the ready, but it wasn't her the eager pup leapt at as soon as she was close enough for the attack.

Alex's surprise at the height the pup made with the single bound was lost in an attack of wet kisses over every part of her face the dog could reach while the director unconsciously fixes her hold to accommodate the squirming ball of furry energy.

"Oh yeah, this is a good look for you Danvers." Kelly laughed taking out her phone to document while her girlfriend tries to lean away from the puppy's unrelenting attack. "the perfect blend of bad ass agent and goofy normal person." She comments snapping a few incriminatingly adorable pictures of the pair.

"Okay, okay Nova. Enough with the kisses bath sweetie." Kate sighs helping the other woman out while Linda continued to hold her sides in giggling laughter at the look on her sister's face. "I know." The closeted vigilante coos at Rory's unhappy whine at being taken out of Alex's arms. "I know sweetie girl. So exciting, but you need to let her breath okay." She jokes shifting the pup in her arms to she was still able to see a grateful looking Alex.

Kelly shakes her head her teasing smile never wavering while Alex whips the access slobber from her face and neck. "You're lucky. She kept trying to bite at me when Lin first passed her off."

"Maybe she just likes me better." Alex laughs unable to shake that she knew the cute attack dog from somewhere but at the moment she couldn't place where.

She knows her mother was doing it to protect her sanity, but it still hurt like an open wound to have to turn away and walk the other direction at Kate's "Come on Danvers lets to check in with the nerd court. Maybe they've found a way to get our woman back." Suggestion as she steers them toward the lab as soon as they exit the gym.

"Alex…" Kelly starts to say but her girlfriend had already turned in the direction of the hub. "Trust me. I might be the DEO director, but even I'm not dumb enough to pick a fight with my mother after she's made up her mind on something." She says without turning around to see it Kelly would follow her or Kate.

It's not until she's halfway to her secondary hideout of her office that she hears the click of paws following her. As soon as she stops so does her shadow. Adorably the dog is sitting patently as if waiting to see what she would do next when Alex turns to look.

"Hey, you." If dogs could smile, then this one sure as science smiles at her. "Don't attack me with kisses this time alright." She adds as she kneels. The dog tilts her head to the side as if not understanding what was being asked as it pads closer. Now that she wasn't finding off wet dog slobber Alex could get a look at the vest the cute dog was wearing. She had to hand it to those Gotham techs. If she didn't know any better, she'd swear the vest was DEO grade.

"You know I know another cute doggie I think you'd love." Alex says conversationally letting the dog circle around before laying down pressed as close as she could get to her side without really being in her lap. Its not long before the cute pup is sleepily drooling into her leg.

It's the fifth loop of her new favorite animal-related video that she hears twin footfalls coming down the hall to where she and her three-legged shadow were hiding out.

"Mom is mad."

"Yours or mine." Alex asks without looking up at the newcomers while she continues scratching the sleeping dog at her side behind her ear.

"Yes." Her sisters say at the same time.

"Oh, my gosh is this her?"

The twitch of her dog's paws at the louder than needed squeal in her sister's voice has Alex peeking up at the pair with a warning "Kara I love you dearly, but you wake my dog I'm having Lin punch you in the arm as hard as she can."

Kara pouts while Linda chuckles. "This isn't your dog Alex its Ma…." Kara starts to argue but her twin jumps in before she could finish making Alex laugh when she actually does slap her twin in the arm. "Kara remember what Mom asked about that thing…. the one she asked us to go get for her before we ran out of the room."

Alex would have laughed at Linda's poor attempt to quiet Kara if she wasn't also intrigued as to why Linda was trying to quiet Kara about just who the dog that seemed to have attached itself to her belonged to.

"Winn got yelled at too. Mom and Mom tag-teamed him into going to take at least a three-hour nap." Kara says already seeing her older sister trying to intimidate her into telling her why her twin didn't want her to know who the dog at her side belonged to. Whoever they were had better be prepared to share because Alex was already in love.

"Da but they were a little nicer when they sent Lena to bed. She was running on coffee and curses when we pulled her away." Linda agrees with a shy smile. She'd let Kara be the one to carry a sleepy Lena to the on sight sleeping quarters like they had at the compound back in Kasnia.

"El mayarah. Remember. We are not stronger when we are worrying ourselves to sickness or working ourselves into exhaustion." Alura reminds as she and Kate stroll into the same hallway as the Danvers sisters.

"We found something?" Alex perks up at the sight of them yet for all her unease about what had been found she couldn't bring herself to move and risk disturbing the animal at her side. Lucky for her 'Nova' seemed to wake up at the sound of Kate's voice.

"Should have known you'd defect on us." The billionaire sighs with only a mild undertone of a dramatic air about her. Her phone was already out snapping a picture of the two on the floor. "You're Mom's going to flip out when I show her this you know." She warns sliding the device back into her pocket.

'Nova' only sighed going back to resting her head against Alex's side after a small headbutt against her hand wanting her ears scratched.

Alura smiles at the banter murmuring about how cute Earth people were with their animals before getting back to the matter at hand. "Maybe. As I've told your mother and the others. My husband was always better with the science things than I but between us…."

"I'm dubbing the gang we've created the 'Nerd court' just so you know." Kate jumps in with a laugh when all she earns is groans.

"You're worse than Cisco." Kara concludes from her place on the floor. She'd managed to coax 'Nova' over enough that now the dog was laying across her and her sister's lap. Kara getting the front end while Alex had to handle 'Nova's' excited thumping tail against her stomach.

"Yes yes." Alura sighs her annoyance at the interruption mirrored on Alex's face "According to what we have on hand Pandora is unstable but that is actually good news for us seeing as it makes some of the projects components trackable. The trail, however, scatters like leaves on the wind so pining your detective's exact location will be difficult."

"I'm thinking its because these goons are playing set up with us. Get us to hit a stable target while they take this show on the road." Kate adds

"I don't care how haywire this theory is. At least we have something to go on now instead of just flying blind." Alex sighs resting her head back against the wall.


	11. The Eagle and The Bat

The only thing that came to mind as she watches her prowl the halls outside the lab is a graceful yet caged jungle cat in tactical gear. All that grace and coiled power waiting to be unleashed as soon as she was told the right direction to point it. The fact that Jamie's dog was obediently keeping to her side on every pass Alex makes on her way up and down the hall makes Kelly smile wider.

"Hey."

Nova lets out a small growl at her approach but Alex's hand ruffling the guard dog's fur seemed to sooth whatever annoyance the pup has.

"Thought you could use another distraction." Kelly holds up the container in her hand. Alex lets out the smallest of laughs at the slosh of red-colored Jell-O inside but not even that keeps her eyes from flickering from Kelly's face to Brainy's back while the 12th level intellect finishes narrowing down the possible locations Cadmus could be hiding. It had been almost an hour since they'd told her they'd found a thread of a lead surely they could find something else by now.

Maggie needed them.

"Alex." Kelly murmurs seeing the wheels turning in the refection of Alex's eyes. The agent's hand once again finds the comforting warmth of Nova's scruff when the pup rears up pawing at Alex's side as she like Kelly picks up on the unease radiating off the dazed government agent.

"I'll be find once we get going beautiful."

Kelly doesn't know who Alex is talking to her or the animal at her side, but at the moment she doesn't care very much seeing as having Nova around seems to be the only thing calming her girlfriend. Again, Nova takes a step between the two when Kelly moves to get her girlfriend's attention only this time the dog stays quiet. "She's really protective huh."

Alex smiles the one Kelly only thought was reserved for her sister now sisters as her eyes move to her silent bodyguard. "She knows I'm on edge and could use a friend." Nova gave a lopsided puppy smirk as Alex kneels ruffling her fur with an affectionate smile on her lips and earning a few swipes of Rory's tongue against her cheek in return.

"Well, now you have two." Kelly smiles pulling out a plastic spoon from her pocket along with another smaller container of Jell-O. "I thought Nova should get a treat too for being so helpful."

Alex's hand closes like a vice around Kelly's wrist as soon as Kelly starts to set the small container in front of the cute dog currently licking her lips in anticipation of her treat.

"It's sugar-free babe I promise. Dogs can have Jell-O as long as it's sugar-free." Kelly calms covering Alex's hand with her own. She even pulls an article up on her phone as proof when Alex didn't look interlay convinced.

Rory looked first at Kelly than to the container she puts in from of her and back again. After a few sniffs, Rory looks toward Alex as if asking permission.

"It's alright sweetie go ahead."

After another warry sniff, Rory digs in.

"Hey, Kels, I think she likes it." Alex laughs resting her head against Kelly's shoulder as they watch Rory pushing the container around in an attempt to clean every bit of jelly from it.

* * *

"What the hell is that even made of adamantium and mithril?" Jamie asks in awe as she reads over the specs while Lena's hand finds Linda's a second time in the last hour squeezing it once in reassurance. It was a little worrying that she hadn't been peppered with questions ever since she'd lead her friend away from what seemed to be a deep conversation with her mothers.

"It's more of a combination of fabricated graphene and led components to keep the kryptonite from…." Brainy starts to explain while Lena giggles watching Linda do another twirl like a princess in a new dress enjoying the swish of her new cape against her back.

Jamie scoffs at that already waving the tablet she'd stolen from Lena around. "This is a heck of a lot more than just…."

"Yes, Yes." Brainy cuts in his jaw flexing in agitation as his eyes hold Jamie's then move toward the pair now sitting in the hallway splitting a container of what Brainy guesses to be Jell-O between them.

The little boxes tactic wasn't helping the longer he witnesses his friend and commanding officer worry herself to a number of troubling hospital-level admission related conditions since learning of the detective's kidnapping. It was starting to become like his outburst after James was shot all over again. The regret the worry.

He hadn't exactly gotten to know Maggie Sawyer personally and it was true that the Alex and the detective had chosen to put an end their pending marriage yet seeing how Alex reacts to every new part of this unfolding mystery reminds him quite strongly of his own feelings toward Nia Nel and if Maggie was indeed Alex's Nia in any way however remote that feeling was then Brainy wasn't about to keep them separated longer than absolutely necessary.

They'd already lost so much time already just trying to find a way to begin the hunt for the kidnapped detective. "Really this model is just a lighter version of what was made for…." He starts to explain again but this time its Lena that cuts him off.

"We don't know how much Kryptonite whoever is holding Maggie has and with the original version of the L corp armor already being in use." Everyone accept Lena looked toward a newly arrived Kara as if needing the visional reminder of the armor in question before turning back to look at Lena "I thought Linda should be equally protected. So, she gets to have this model."

Linda gives a weak smile at the show of thoughtfulness but its Kara that speaks before she can. "You're sure that one is exactly like this one?"

Lena's jaw tightens at the underlaying unease at the question. It was bad enough Kara had kept her 'super' side a secret from her even after the two had become such close friends but now she also had the nerve to question Lena's own handy work at protecting her equally superpowered yet less of a secret-keeping twin? "Yes. I am more than sure that this suite will protect her just like your armor will Supergirl."

Linda winces at the harshness of how Lena talks with her sister and Kara herself seems more shaken then normal. At least now she seems to be feeling some of the sting her betrayal caused.

"What? I wanted Lin to have some armor of her own in case she wanted to go with you." Lena defends catching Alex's eyes in the mirror as Linda continued clinging onto her side.

"That's not…." Alex started to say looking between Kara and Linda as if she was just seeing them for the first time. Apparently, the sisters were also having some kind of silent communication going by Kara's shy and rather guilty smile at her older sister's raised eyebrow.

It's Jamie that breaks the uneasy quiet tapping against the door frame with her knuckles instead of actually knocking "Alright who's coming on operation 'Kick Cadmus in the neither's for taking our favorite detecting Munchkin?' come on war parties leaving. Wheels up in five."

Lena giggles at her enthusiasm. She'd been in the room when the two computer nerds had challenge one another to five games of rock paper scissors to determine who would ride shotgun giving direction and who would be back at the hub relaying those directions to the others laptop during the drive.

Brainy had offered to do it himself but the other two rather politely declined.

"Remind me later I have a lot more fangirling to do over meeting you." The impatient lab genius murmurs sending a blushing Kara a shy smile.

Lena fights down the bubbling feelings of jealousy she has at the banter. No, she wasn't jealous. It wasn't like she and Kara were on speaking terms anymore anyway. It wasn't for lack of trying on the blonde's part. She had been trying but Lena just couldn't face her yet. The hurt was too raw to deep.

Linda's hand shakily finds her own making Lena melt at the warmth of it against her skin. What surprises her is the lack of anything besides amusement in her eyes when Lena's eyes briefly meet Kara's while she drinks in the blossoming security she finds in resting her head against Linda's shoulder.

Apparently having Linda has a kind of superpowered shadow these last few days was chipping away at the walls Lena had built around her trust.

Then again Kara Danvers had always seemed to have such a calming, comforting effect on her from the first meeting.

"Try to get some more rest please." Linda whispers against her ear as if reading Lena's mind about needing a power nap.

"No promises." Lena shrugs picking up her now cold cup of coffee.

Linda's hand catches her own as Lena starts to bring the cold drink to her lips, but going by the crease of Kara's eyes out of the corner of her eye it was the 'original' super standing by the door she could thank when the cup seems to reheat itself it her hand.

Going by the surprise in her eyes Lena guesses Linda hadn't mastered that skill just yet. She whispers a stiff 'Thanks' just to be polite. Lena feels her eyes rolling at the puff of pride of Kara's chest at Linda's proud smile.

"Everyone ready?" J'onn cuts in resting a hand against Kara's shoulder as he peeks into the room.

Everyone going on the rescue mission nodes as one and heads toward the door. But not before Lena manages to tug Linda back for a few more seconds. Later she could wright it off as running on too much coffee and left-over feelings for her former best friend. It wasn't like she could just stop being attracted to Kara regardless of how the ray of walking sunshine treated her trust as well as her heart.

She knew it was wrong to project her feeling for one twin onto another, but she couldn't help it. A Kara twin was better than no version of Kara at all in her life. After all, Linda already knew about how she felt so at least they were on the same page.

"For good luck," Lena explains pressing the softest of kisses against the super's cheek then another even after one right on the blonde's lips. "Go get'em."

It was so cute watching Linda stumble out of the room after that. Almost like she'd forgotten how to walk.

What was a surprise was the pleased smile Kara flashed her way when Lena's eyes meet hers when she finally takes pity on her twin and offers a steadying hand before Linda could hurt anything more than a desk in her short trip to the door. Almost like she was happy that Lena had just openly showed her sister some level of romantic affection.

No Lena was just seeing things. It wouldn't be the first time.

* * *

How in all of the possible teams had she found herself on the one with Maggie's new girlfriend?

Irony maybe?

Why oh why couldn't she be with her sister. Then at least she could distract herself with teasing her about finally getting a kiss from the woman she'd been crushing on since getting to meet the great Lena Luthor.

"Hey." Alex's jaw flexed in annoyance at the tap against her shoulder pulling her out of her head. "Head in the game Danvers." Yet the agent could hear it in her voice that Kate's thoughts were also all over the place the longer they searched without finding anything remotely useful in helping them find Maggie.

"Alex."

Her sister's voice from the doorway makes both women jump a little. Even with protective armor, the super was turning into quite the stealth ninja.

Her faceplate was down this time around, but the hard line of her jaw had Kate and Alex sharing an uneasy glance between them.

"What's up Lin?" Kate greets before Alex can remember what words where let alone how to say them.

Linda wordlessly pivots around then adds a tight "It will be easier to show you." To get the other two to follow her.

The deeper they went into the maze of hallways the colder it became. By the time they'd apparently reached the cell in question they could see their breath on the air.

"These weren't on the original plans." Kate concluded as she slides passed Linda into the cell.

"It's a Cadmus facility. They don't exactly follow city codes." Alex growls fighting down the urge to either throw up her stomach or beat her fists red on the slime-covered walls as the chill threatened to drag her into her own kidnapped created phobias.

Kate's curse was enough to push passed the heart gripping fear and forces her feet to move cramming herself shoulder to shoulder into the cell beside the grim-faced other women. Linda having left them with a guilty "I will be back."

What she sees has Alex's stomach threatening to heave regardless of her training both as a doctor and a DEO agent. A little blood shouldn't faze her this much.

But it wasn't just any blood.

It was Maggie's blood. It was blood that should still be flowing in Maggie's body keeping her alive until Alex can find her and not smeared over the walls of a dirty cell that really was no bigger than a broom closet like a shakily drawn child's finger painting.

"Shitoky mushrooms its cold in here."

"Where is Superbarries?" Kate asks fighting down her own tears at the state of what had at one time been Maggie's holding cell.

"We thought she was with you?" Kara corrects doing her best to keep herself together as well while Alex hides quiet tears against her shoulder, but Kate shakes her head.

"An eagle and a bat."

Jamie had slid into the cell and was taking several pictures of the bloody walls instantly sending the images back to the waiting team back at the DEO. "What does it mean?" she wonders looking first to Alex then toward Kate as if they somehow would tell her the answer.

"Everyone back to the car." Linda orders over the coms as a foreboding earthquake-like trimmer shakes the building.

"Alex come on." Kate yells "Alex!." She bellows over the sounds of the building literally coming down around them when instead of keeping close to her heels and getting the heck out of dodge the agent chose to tun around and run full out toward the stairs leading back to the cells they'd just come from as if just remembering something.

"Danvers." Kate shouts when almost as soon as Jamie's dragged her out the door the building folds in on itself like a fiery house of cards.

All the Gotham pair could do was watch the building burn in front of their eyes with Jamie using all her strength to keep her much stronger boss from running back into the place herself.

Kara emerges after them and almost as soon as the pair touch down in a haze of speed and smoke they can see that Alex's right leg was broken thanks to her mad dash back into danger "I couldn't just….I couldn't leave it." The agent sobs in answer to the silent question in Kate and Jamie's eyes as she brings the ripped jacket to her face taking in the faint scent of Maggie's shampoo still clinging to the leather under the fresh scent of smoke and ash.

"Where is…." Kara pants out but Jamie stops her already pointing toward the figure of her twin half carrying half dragging something out of the flames and even from a distance the group could tell it that whoever Linda had found hidden away in the lower cells wasn't their detecting damsel in distress.


	12. Chapter 12

"Alura? What is it?" Eliza asks again her hand reaching out toward the alien mother beside them with a look of teary-eyed awe on her face.

Three times. The two human women as resided the Kryptonian healing prayer perfectly three separate times. One for each of the three occupied beds. The two baring her resting daughters and the last holding the one Linda had pulled from the crumbling wreckage of the Cadmus base.

"Kara taught it to us a few weeks after she came to live with is." Alex explains seeing the saddened sweet look on her adoptive mother's face. After all, in the last day and a half Alura has been just as much her mother as her own blood related one. When Alura had yet to speak Alex kept going needing to fill the quiet somehow rather than let herself dwell on the 'what could be happening' possibilities with her ex in the clutches of Cadmus.

"I'd broken my leg trying to beat her at…. God, I don't even remember now…but she was so upset about being the reason I was hurt that she wouldn't leave me alone."

Alura rested a hand against the glass wall separating her from her two sleeping daughters. At the moment she was shamed to say she couldn't tell just who was who. Her other hand went to Alex's arm in comfort sliding down to take her hand instead as Alex rested her head against Eliza's shoulder with a tired sigh.

"Kar would follow me around everywhere after Dad would bring me back from doctor's appointments those first few days and as soon as I was settled in, she'd start whispering to herself at least that's how I saw it at the time" Alura nodded in understanding earning another of Alex's guilty looks. "I'd yell at her to leave me alone, so she'd go out into the hall and sit down there instead but then she'd start the murmuring all over again." Alex kept going her eyes unfocusing as she lost herself in the memory of what she was saying.

Eliza slides her arm across her elder daughter's shoulder when Alex's started shaking in quiet guilty tears. "I was so mean to her." Alex sobs hiding her tear stained face against her mother's collar bone. For the moment she didn't care about keeping up the façade of the tough 'Agent Danvers' that could take down targets several times bigger than her or knew six different ways of harming someone with only her index finger. Right now, she was just a worn-out young woman in need of a hug from her mother while her world threatens to crash around her—again.

"You couldn't have known then what that prayer was for." Alura soothes wrapping her arms around the shaking woman's shoulders.

The mothers share a look between them not knowing how to help their respective daughters at the moment with Eliza turning to check on Winn and Lena in the conference room on the second floor once again looking for clues to where Maggie had been taken. The two were even considering jointly simi adopting Jamie into their little family.

"Yeah for all I knew she could have been cursing me in a language that I didn't know. At least not then." Alex agreed with a hiccupped laugh as she pulls herself together again while whipping her teary eyes on the sleeve of her tactical gear. "It took her somehow blowing out her powers and hurt her hand in gym a few weeks after Kenny was killed and my reciting it to her in the nurse's office while she was waking up that she finally told me what it was for."

Alura tries to brush her tears away only for more to fall as she looks from her sleeping daughters to their Earth sister and back again. Alex already seems to know what was going on in her head as she untangles herself from one mother to pull the other in for another hug. "Kara may not be my sister by blood, but she is my sister. Linda too."

That has Alura holding the other woman tighter also pulling a sniffing Eliza into the hug as well. It's not until they feel a weight pawing at their legs that they remember the other member of the little watch party.

"Feeling left out sweetie?" Alex sniffs taking some time to get to a decent kneeling position. She hadn't been as banged up as the other three now sedated or resting up under solar lamps, but she was still bruised enough to annoy her. Rory whines low in her throat at the question licking away the tear tracks on Alex's face as she scoots closer giving the kneeling human her own version of a hug.

A soft chuckle pulls the hovering mothers attention while Alex chooses to snuggle into the soft fur of her new friend for a little while longer.

"I didn't mean to intrude." Kate tells them honestly as she walks up her hands tucked into the pockets of her pants. "Its just Jamie thinks she's got a lead on tracking the signal that tipped off those Cadmus goons we were coming."

Alex sat up straighter at that "Sorry I didn't trust…." She stared to say, but Kate holds up a hand to stop her. "Given who is at stake here I can fully understand your want to charge in guns blazing." Alex nodes falling into step as Kate leads the way back up to the conference room with Rory padding along between them. "But we also need to have a better plane of action next time."

"How is Snowy?" Lena asks as soon as she sees them. Her hair was up in a messy ponytail and her normal neatly pressed business attire swopped out for loose sweatpants and an old college sweatshirt. She had even dawned those black framed glasses she seldom wore in favor of contacts.

"Resting." Alura answered taking a seat between her and Kelly at the long table scattered with empty coffee cups, crumpled bits of paper with half finished equations, scribbled notes, or jotted down quadrants, dry erase markers, broken pens and pencils and paper plates with barely touched food littering its surface. "How is it going up here?"

Lena sighed running a hand in her unkempt hair. "They got us one time. Not going to happen again." she promises with a determined edge to her voice.

Alex and Kate had to clap their hands against the mouths to keep quiet when they noticed the couple sleeping on the conference rooms new pull out sofa. It had been Eliza's idea the second time she'd caught Winn dozing off still sitting hunched over the table. For once he'd refused both the mother's insistence, he go to the bunk wing when Alura had gently shaken him awake.

After a glance up at Alex Rory trots over to the bed and hops up with relative ease settling herself between Winn and Jamie with a soft huff from the effort while Winn rolls over and ends up throwing his arm over her back in his sleep. Eliza shares a smile with her daughter knowing how much Winn liked the idea of owning a dog himself.

"Hey yeah, Sunshine." Jamie greets lifting her head from the pillow she'd made of her own arm. Rory hummed low in her throat leaning over to give Jamie's face an affectionate mini bath of kisses in greeting. "Yeah missed you too baby girl. Sleepytime now." Jamie grins too tired to care about having dog slobber on her face as she snuggles as close as she can get to the bed's furry occupant with Winn's arm in the way.

"What did you say?" Alex asked but Jamie had already gone back to sleep and hadn't heard the question.

"She is still running on Gotham time." Kate reminds resting a hand against Alex's arm when it looks like Alex wanted to go over and shake Jamie awake again.

"But she called Nova Sunshine." Alex reminds already feeling Kelly's arms around her waist when her caffeine crash makes her hands tremble at her sides.

Lena nods wishing Brainy wasn't down keeping an eye on Kara and Linda and running a few of their newest Pandora leads in the DEO database for more possible Maggie leads. If he were here maybe he could tell her why Alex was making such a big deal about the cute dog name.

"Well yeah. Why do you think I call her Super Nova?" Kate chuckles crossing her arms over her front as she sinks into an open chair her eyes still trained on Alex's.

"She is your dog, isn't she?" Given how close she and 'Nova' seemed to be Alex had just guessed she was to pups owner if it wasn't Jamie.

Kate shakes her head "I wish but sadly I wasn't the one Rory picked for her Mama that night."

Alex opened her mouth to ask who that lucky someone was, but Kelly pressed a hand over her lips to quiet her. "We can talk about puppy parents later Al. Right now, you've had a rough few days and based on what my brother has told me about Cadmus we're going to have a few more before we find the detective."

Everyone not already asleep winces at the reminder. "I may not have gotten to meet her myself, but I already know that Maggie wouldn't want any of you overworking yourselves like you are even for her." Kelly says looking into each pair of eyes around the table. When she came to Alex it was to see her girlfriend absently tugging at the necklace she was wearing. Spinning one of the rings on the chain around her finger.

Brainy tapped on the edge of the door with a nervous look in his eyes as he holds up a memory drive. "I haven't yet found a new possible location on our missing detective." He admits with a defeated sigh. "But I have found bits of the security film from the compound…."

Alex's hand closes tightly around the twin bits of metal hanging from the chain at her neck "Put it on."

Brainy hesitated but its Lena that takes the drive and plugs it into the computer instead. "This may be hard to watch but at least it will give us an idea of what they are going to her." she reminds glancing over toward Alex as she starts up the first of the three videos Brainy had been able to piece back together.


	13. Chapter 13

Rewatch. Rewind. Replay.

She'd been at it for the last hour and a half with minimal breaks other than to refill her tea before she was back at it.

Rewatch. Rewind. Replay. Rewatch. Rewind. Replay. Rewatch. Rewind. Replay. Rewatch. Rewind. Replay.

"This isn't healthy."

She didn't look away from the screen as she brought her steaming teacup to her lips and took a long sip. No matter how many times she'd watched before she still recoils at the sight of Maggie's soundless scream as she thrashes against the restraints following an injection of Rao knew what by one of the Cadmus doctors spilling the murky gray she was laying in over the sides of the tank Cadmus was holding her in.

Even in the black and white of the video feed, Eliza knew what that water like substance was.

Liquefied kryptonite.

Apparently, Cadmus had found a more stable conductor for the Pandora project according to Lena and Jamie.

Kate lets out a low breath pushing off the doorframe to jerk the tablet away before Eliza could hit the replay button.

"You should be resting." Kate reminds topping off her coffee cup as she spoke. She brings the cup closer but instead of taking a drink the closeted veganity takes a long smell of its scent instead.

Eliza shakes her head her fingers gripping the leather jacket she'd smuggled out of the lab tighter in her lap the longer she watches. Not that Alex seemed to realize Maggie had claimed one of her daughter's jackets as her own anyway. Not even when both had been hanging side by side in the hallway just two nights before. "I'm fine." But Kate isn't fooled one bit. "I noticed the Bat has been radio-quiet since helping us crack that last formula equation from the fragments Jamie brought back from the Cadmus lab."

That she wasn't ready for. Shifting in her seat Kate tried to keep her cool on the topic knowing from Maggie that at least one of the many agents in the building could read her mind. Although she hadn't seen much of J'onn Jones in the last two hours so she couldn't know if he was still around or not.

"Come on. I've helped raise a literal superhero and one of the finest government agents of her generation. On top of that, I am rather smart myself when it comes to the more 'costumed' crowd." Eliza reminds as she brings her teacup to her lips draining the remainder of the liquid inside in one slip. "Don't worry I haven't told anyone." She soothes seeing Kate shifting uncomfortably in her seat once again.

"Yeah, Mags said she put the pieces together from me just walking into the bullpen after taking the captain job at the GCDP the day after she met up with our new city bat the second week she was back." Kate confesses feeling a bit better once she felt Rory's head resting against her leg under the table.

That earns a soft laugh from the Danvers mother. "Well, she is a detective after all."

Kate giggles at that "Yeah thats our Mags alright. Always detecting." She agrees while therapeutically running her fingers threw Rory's fur when the pup decides she wanted to become a lapdog rather than just sitting on the floor between the chairs.

"She was broken. When she came back. That first seven months all she talked about was either work or Ror here." Kate confides "She would keep tabs on blondie of course especially after the Reign thing."

Eliza shuddered at the reminder. Kate did too remembering how she stayed up all night holding a sobbing Maggie in her arms as she cried herself to sleep that night. "She was upset at learning James was shot. Not as much as when Supergirl was beaten to a pulp but she still took it hard."

"I'd thought she'd left town by then."

"She had but like I said. She liked keeping tabs on her friends and chosen family here." Kate reminds with a shrug of her shoulders as she leans back in her chair getting more comfortable.

Eliza represses a shudder at the reminder.

Her chosen family.

If only Maggie was her family now. Sure, it would hurt more with her being taken, but at least she'd have more to hold onto in her fight against whatever it was Cadmus was doing to her.

"You know it was Alex that helped Nova here get her name?"

Eliza blinked her face changing from guilty unease to confusion at Kate's comment.

"Her real name is Aurora Sawyer." Kate tells with a goofy sleepy smile on her lips when Rory looks up at the sound of her name. Her head tilted to the side just like Maggie would do from time to time. "Rory is just a nickname."

When Eliza still seemed lost Kate carefully unbuckles what everyone else including Eliza herself thought to be some kind of high-grade anxiety and safety harness. Looking at it now the Danvers monarch could see that while their previous predictions weren't entirely off the mark another hidden feature was a hidden pocket in the vest lining.

"Hey easy pup." Kate soothes when Rory lets out a growled whine at the loss of its weight around her shoulders. "I don't know where Mags keeps the first one, but she had a friend of mine duplicate about a hundred of these as soon as she realized Ror had grown attached."

Eliza fought to keep happy tears away as she reaches out to take the too bright orange shirt Kate had just pulled out. Almost at once Rory's head swiveled around to look at it her paw moving to rest against Eliza's arm as if to keep her from pulling it too far away.

"This was just supposed to be a kind of joke. Alex isn't exactly the cheeriest woman in the world first thing in the morning. At lest not before she's had a morning surf or run to get her blood pumping." The mother explained her free hand going to the dog's head while the other traced over the yellow letters across the front of the shirt.

"Neither is Mags before coffee." Kate agreed "It had been the first thing Maggie had laid hands on after we gotten Ror cleaned up." She goes on massaging Rory's back as she reminisced. It had been a little awkward but also downright adorable, to say the least. Her in full Batwoman attire standing in what would end up becoming Maggie Sawyer's apartment while the feisty detective hummed an alien lullaby to a shivering pup wrapped in a bright orange shirt that seemed too big for even Maggie to wear.

"Jamie said Mags packed hers before leaving Gotham, but her duffle seems to have vanished so I can't be sure." Kate shrugged trying to hide a yawn behind her hand.

Eliza glances at her watch with a low sigh at just how late it had become. Well past midnight. Several hours past in fact. "Come on. We'll need at least an hour or two of real sleep before we start the hunt again." The mother decides stretching her arms over her head as she stood up. Kate taking some coxing before she gets up herself.

Even her time roaming the dark Gotham streets dressed as a bat hadn't prepared her for the last two days of little to no sleep while running on a mix of anxiety, determination, and coffee.

Kelly catches them in the hall just shy of the one leading to the in-house sleeping quarters. "Have you seen Al recently?"

Kate and Eliza shook their heads "Have you tried…." Kate tired but Kelly cuts her off "I've already checked hub and the med wing. Lena, Winn, and Alura are there all watching over Kara and Lin, but none of them have seen Al since one in the morning and she isn't in the break room and I just checked barracks. Nothing."

"What about her office." Eliza offers after all she and Kate had just come from the conference room.

Kelly walks with them until they'd reached the barracks then leaves with a grateful smile and a whispered: "Sleep well". Rory pads along a few steps behind her as she turns around and winds her way in the maze of hallways and staircases toward the director's office.

Almost as soon as she'd cracked the door open enough to step into the room Kelly has to reach down to grip the dog's collar to keep her from leaping up onto the too small sofa and risk disturbing the angel of an agent sleeping on top of it.

For once Alex doesn't look like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. She looks calmer than Kelly's ever really seen her in her waking hours. Happier too. Although where in the world Alex had been keeping that bright orange shirt she was wearing instead of her normal black colored tank top was a mystery considering that by now Kelly was sure she'd seen all of Alex's 'after work' shirts.

Rory tugged again against Kelly's hold as she closes the door behind them, but she holds the dog back "She needs to rest." Kelly reminds earning a huff in answer from the dog followed with a low growl and another tug against her grip.

Kelly reluctantly lets the dog go not wanting the steady increasing growls to wake Alex.

Rory trots over to the bed tugging the slipping blanket back over the sleeping director's shoulders before laying down on the floor in front of the couch with her head on her paws.

The feel of fur under the hand dangling over the edge of the couch seems to rouse Alex enough for the agent to roll over onto her back with a sleepy huff at the premature awakening.

"Hey, you." Kelly smiles meeting Alex's sleep-filled eyes.

"Hi." Alex answers more asleep than really awake at the moment.

"Go back to sleep babe it was just Rory making sure you were warm enough." Kelly explains pulling out the book Alex kept for her as she takes the armchair across from the couch.

"Mkay." Alex yawns snuggling back into the cushions of the couch returning a hand to Rory's back with a happy smile as she settles back against the couch.

"Night Ally." Kelly chuckles opening her book.

"Night Maggie." Alex murmurs letting sleep overtake her.

* * *

"What are you smiling about?"

Linda blinks feeling her cheeks coloring up as her eyes refocused onto emerald green ones set into the angel face hovering over her. "Nothing." She says her voice rather dreamlike as she sits up with Lena's help.

A grim-faced Brainy's arrival halted any more questions on the subject as all eyes turned toward him as soon as the doors slid open.

"Nothing yet on another chemical trace." He tells them seeing the mixed looks of anticipation and dread from each face in the small room.

"Then what is that?" Lena asks keeping her arm draped across Linda's shoulders while on the other side of her bed Kara was swinging her legs over the side of her own bed stretching her arms over her head. "More Cadmus surveillance?" she wonders aloud sharing a pained look with her mother.

Linda recoils leaning more into Lena's side. Eliza had reluctantly allowed them to see the first batch of security footage of what those Cadmus monsters were doing to her friend. The next two hours finding the 'Krypton twins' tearing up the different sizes of solid stones that were soon reduced to pebbles or sand under their hands.

Brainy shakes his head his eyes going to the floor as he seems to pull himself together keeping a tight hold on the device in his trembling hand. Again, the little boxes exercise was falling him. "The results on the traces we ran on the signal of the computer that tipped Cadmus that we were onto them."

"Yeah." Kara yawns rubbing the sleep from her eyes with the heel of her hand while Linda rolls her healing shoulder to work out the stiffness and assessing the left-over pain level from their earlier 'therapy session'.

"This has to be some kind of mistake." Winn scoffs as soon as his eyes land on the security photo Brainy had pulled up of their betrayer.

Brainy shakes his head as Kara peeks over Winn's shoulder. "I ran the test several times. It was the same result every time. It is not a mistake."

"Well, I have news for you. As infallible as you think it is Mr. 12th intellect technology can be manipulated."

Brainy nodes his head pressing his hands together in front of him as he allows Winn's anger to wash over him. "I have taken that theory into account but as I've said I have run the calculations several times all of them with the same outcome."

It's only Kara's hand against his shoulder that keeps him from outright attacking Brainy for bringing them the information. "So, you're just expecting us to believe that all this time she has been running herself ragged just like the rest of us trying to bring Maggie back that all this time she has been working with Cadmus?" Winn questions his anger rising the longer his eyes hold Brainy's.

"Yes" The 12th level intellect answers.

"Snowy wait!."

"Linda….Daughter."

Red Daughter didn't stop or slow down as she fled the room. Pain and rage fulling her steps as she flies more than runs down the hall seeking her target.

A pain stronger than the one she'd felt for when little Mikhail was taken from her worse still than when Lex betrayed her and a wave of anger hotter than the one she'd once held for the woman she now saw as her sister her family coursing in her system pushing her to go faster.

She knows from her sister that if she allows this for too long, she will lose the use of her powers for a short time but not even that slows her down. Not now. Not before she punches all the answers, she can get out of the traitor to her Dude Maggie. To her sister.

* * *

**Author Notes:**

Any ideas on who is the unlucky target of Red Daughter's rage?  
Is this still alright? Still, fun to read?  
All feedback welcome.


	14. Chapter 14

After watching over her resting girlfriend and her dozing self-appointed guard dog for a solid two hours Kelly sets her book aside not really interested in it anymore. She gets up stretching out the stiffness from her limbs from being forced to site across the room from her sleeping girlfriend rather than sitting on the couch herself with Alex's head pillowed in her lap as she slept. Next time the pup sleeps outside she decides feeling the growing twist of jealousy at how adorable Alex was snuggled up with someone else dog as she goes over to press a kiss against the sleeping agent's cheek.

Rory's eye cracks open but Kelly is already backing away least the dog's growling wakes her sleeping beauty.

Once she was sure the soundproofing she'd put up around the office was still active, double-checked that the take out box of pizza she'd brought in would be at a decent enough tempter when Alex woke up and once again replacing the fallen blanket across Alex's shoulder while she slept Kelly leaves the office trusting a once again dozing Rory to protect her girl while she was away. Once outside the office Kelly makes sure to lock the door behind her just to be sure her Director girlfriend was left to her dreams in peace.

Alex had been working so hard lately. Too hard in Kelly's opinion. She was more than deserving of a long uneventful rest.

As soon as the spare key Alex had given her was tucked back into her pocket Kelly heads in the direction of the cafeteria. After all she wouldn't be any help to anyone on an empty stomach. Her phone buzzes in her pocket as she rounds the first corner away from the short hallway bringing a hopeful smile to her lips as she pulls it out. "Finally." She smiles scanning over the waiting text then firing off a few of her own in answer.

Mostly another round of happy faces emojis. She really was spending too much time with Kara.

"Good news?"

Kelly's eyes lift from the screen at the question her smile still in place. "Very good news." She smiles earning a small one from Vaz in return. It seemed every time she'd seen her since the Cadmus bust Kelly was always on her phone.

Everyone guesses she was keeping her brother as up to date as she could given the more sensitive information, they were slowly piecing together from the charred remains of the security hard drives.

"Good. At least someone in this place is getting good news." She sighs looking in need of a break herself.

"What do you mean by that?" Kelly asks puzzled as she tucks her phone back into her pocket. Rather than answer Susan chuckles noting how Kelly's head was doing that cute head tilt Maggie's would from time to time. Then she blinks confusion taking the place of remember amusement. "You really don't know?"

Kelly shakes her head "I've been with Ally. She's been catching up on her sleep, so I locked down her office to give her some semblance of privacy."

Rather than argue over protocol especially given Alex's orders to be kept as up to date as possible on any kind of new information they found on Maggie case Vasquez nodes. She knows Alex's behavior was more than a little warranted given who it was Cadmus had chosen to snatch from her life especially after seeing a glimpse of what those monsters was doing to the feisty detective herself from what Lena and the cute Gotham nerd had managed to pull from what was left of the former Cadmus bases security system, but Susan couldn't stand seeing her friend and boss working herself as hard as she had been the last few days. Without a doubt even Maggie would agree that Alex should be taking better care of herself if she knew.

"What brings you over Vaz?"

Vasquez's jaw ticks at how friendly Alex's new girlfriend was trying to be with her. Yes, she like the rest of the agents at the DEO were trying to warm to the new woman in their Director's life but it was slow going. With Maggie, it had been easier for them to welcome her into the fold. With Kelly that warmth wasn't as easy regardless of her being James's sister.

Before she could answer the sounds of shouting from the lower levels could be heard. No real words but the range behind them was clear enough for both women to hear.

Kelly's head tilted to the side as if anyone without super hearing could hope to catch what the angry Russian was shouting now. "That?" she guesses

Vaz nodes. "That." Susan agrees. "They've been trying to calm her down for the last hour but." Vasquez lets out a slow breath shaking her head. "That's why I was coming to get Alex. I mean we all found it weird she didn't come storming down as soon hurricane Lin broke out."

"Like I said." Kelly reminded putting herself between the agent and the start of the hallway to her girlfriend's office but Vaz waves her off. Then runs a hand in her short-cropped hair "Yeah. To be honest I would have done the same. I mean I know its Maggie's safety and her life on the line here and believe me I want her back safe and sound just as much as the others do, but even Mags would agree that the teamwork ethic isn't exactly healthy"

Kelly's jaw flexes at the name but she holds her tongue. Mostly that is. "From what I've heard from James the detective wasn't exactly following the book herself when that lunatic kidnapped Alex."

"I wouldn't go as far as to compare Jamie to that…." Kelly tuned the agent out at the string of expletives that followed "but knowing that she is possibly somehow working with Cadmus? It's pretty damned close." The agent finishes

"Jamie? As in Maggie's little computer geek friend?" Kelly questions as she falls into step when the acting Director turns away from Alex's office to go check once again on the seething super. Going by the new muffled strings of different language curses the rest of the gang had yet to take Red Daughter back to her 'cool down' room.

Regardless of what Alex had said about wanting to be kept in the loop Vasquez didn't exactly want to be the one to tell her about Jamie's betrayal just yet.

Not until they were sure beyond the nagging doubts of even the other agents some of them intentionally stayed behind when their shifts were up to lead some form of help. Even if it was just making sure the coffee in the break room was warm enough. After all. Maggie may not be in any kind of relationship with their beloved director but that didn't mean the scrappy detective wasn't still part of their inner family. And the DEO sure as hell defends its family.

"I know right." Susan exclaims "Winn and Kate swear up and down that she is being framed somehow and even J'onn and Eliza are saying the same thing but not even they can dispute what Brainy and the other lab guys have been digging up." If the agent had been looking her way, she would have caught an almost amused looking smile on Kelly's lips before she schools, her face into something more appropriate to the situation as she rests a hand against the agent's shoulder.

"When was the last time you got some decent sleep?" Susan shrugs. "Alright well, when was the last time you've eaten anything?" Again, her question was answered with a shrugging of black tactical gear clade shoulders as she thought it over then spoke: "I had a protein bar yesterday morning."

Kelly tisked under her breath. "Come on. I'm dropping you at the break room for something better than just a protein bar than making sure you get some real rest then going to see if I can do anything to help quiet hurricane Kasnia before she brings the place down."

"I think the place is safe for now. From Lin at least she solar flared and blew her powers. Kara and Alura on the other hand-" Kelly files that away for now as they turn another corner away from Alex. "and it was more than just a protein bar." Vasquez argues letting herself be tugged along back down the hallway. "It was one of the strawberry banana ones. Trust me those are like gold around here."

* * *

Her phone buzzed again just as she reached the door to Linda's 'cool down' room for the second time that afternoon, but for once she doesn't check it immediately.

If she remembered correctly now she was really looking at it beyond having to help guide an angry crying super clone into it before sliding off to pick up a few things before making a return trip that this was also the cell James said Kara's alien ex was held after he came back with not only a scruffy beard but also a wife.

It takes some sweet-talking the second time around, but she manages to get the guards standing watch on either side of the door to let her in.

Linda is sitting cross-legged in the middle of what passed for a bed her head down letting her long hair shield her face like a scolded child awaking, even more, scolding to come. At least they'd allowed for her to have her trusty long cape with her before locking the door behind them as it was now wrapped around her shoulders like a soft blood-colored cocoon.

It's only when the door is closed behind her and Linda had yet to signal that she knew anyone else was in the room that Kelly chances pulling out her phone to check the latest update.

"It was only a matter of time." She muses realizing a little to late that she'd said the words aloud. Not that she could really be too upset considering that was what caused Linda to look up from her meditative like state.

"You have good news?"

"Very good news." Kelly nodes quickly punching in the code Vaz told her to open the cell door to allow her inside. "One of my more stubborn patients is starting to accept her treatment," Kelly explains at Linda's quiet prompting for more information while also rummaging in the shopping bag her sister's girlfriend had smuggled into the cell with her.

"Oh?" Linda knew from talks with Alex that the new one was some kind of doctor in her own right as Kelly slides down the wall across from the sulking super while tucking her phone back into the safety of her pocket but only after snapping a picture of the super's delighted face when she saw just what was in the bag Kelly had offered her.

"A tough one?" Linda questions tugging the wrappings off each of the cookie packages to start mixing them together into one package.

Kelly nodes "Extremely tough. You have no idea." She laughs then her eyes turn sad. "A Jane Doe case I'm afraid so we don't really know her name and she keeps going in and out of consciousness so it is difficult for us to ask her."

Linda scoots a little closer to the end of her bed as she takes another cookie from the pack Kelly had managed to smuggle in for her. This one consisting of a mix of Carrot Cake, Peppermint cookies along with a new one Kelly had found after a quick internet search and a trip to the closest conveyance store called Marshmallow Moon. A specialty cookie to commemorate Earth's 50th year of landing on the moon.

If she was being honest Linda liked the moon landing cookies the best. Apart from the different space-y looking designs stamped on them the icing was also tented purple. "Good thing I bought out the two cases the store had in stock then huh?" Kelly comments nibbling on one of the other flavored ones.

Linda gives a bashful smile at that taking another cookie from the pack as she thought of something. "But if this patient of yours is conscious enough to be responding to this treatment as you say then that must mean that she will wake up soon, so she won't have to be Jane Doe much longer."

Kelly gives a light smile at the alien woman's optimism that was until she reaches for another of the dwindling cookies left in the sleeve only to stop with a low hiss of pain as her hand goes to her side before she can stop herself.

"Kelly?"

She waves away Linda's worried tones. "It's nothing." She promises but Linda is already scooting away with a guilty expression. "I hurt you, didn't I? When I pushed you out-of-the-way when you stepped between Kara and me?" Even without her powers at the moment the accident happened she'd thought Kelly had fallen too hard into the side of a table but at the time she'd been too consumed by her anger to check on her properly.

"A little bruised is all." Kelly soothes.

Linda was about to say something else but a soft taping against the main door pulled her attention.

Alex had finally woken from her nap and was standing with Rory and Kara in the doorway to the holding cell. For now, Kelly couldn't decide if her girlfriend hadn't been told what had been happening while she slept or if Alex was just pushing down her feelings regarding Jamie's betrayal.

Either way, she seemed to have eyes only for her sister while her hand was busy spinning one of the rings around her neck around her little finger. "Are you up for a field trip?"

Linda tilts her head curious but doesn't make a move to get up other than pulling her long cape security blanket tighter around her shoulders.

"There's someone in the med wing that wants to meet you." Kara elaborates leaving Alex and Rory standing at the door as she crosses to the keypad to punch in the access code then steps back as the security door slides open.

"Other Papa is awake?" Linda guesses both excited and nervous over the thought as her sisters node.

What if he didn't like her?


	15. Chapter 15

'_God, Sawyer, where are you?' _

It was a thought that had been replaying like a broken record in her head every time they failed to find where those Cadmus monsters had taken her Maggie.

That was another thing that Alex couldn't shake. Even in her own head. Calling Maggie, Hers.

Maggie wasn't hers. Not anymore.

She was with Kate and Alex was with Kelly.

And she was happy that way.

Not as happy as she had been a few days ago wondering that twilight light beach with the woman she'd once thought she'd be spending the rest of her life with of course, but it was something resembling happy when she thinks of Kelly. The more she considers this the more Alex realizes that really no one would be able to compare to her feelings for Maggie.

Maggie was the one. Was her one.

Her first real girlfriend. The first person ever to get Alex to finally be alright with just being herself.

How could any woman compete with that?

Then again Alex reminds herself she hasn't really stopped to give Kelly a real chance to know her like Maggie did.

She couldn't make herself take the risk of being hurt again. Not like that.

'_God, Sawyer, where the hell are you?' _

Lena tugs on her arm with a pleased smile diverting any other thoughts than 'what the heck?' as she pulls Alex down the hall at a quick pace "Guess who's awake?"

Alex doesn't get to have much time to answer as she's hassled into the med wing.

"Len who?" the agent starts to ask but the question stalls when the CEO pushes her into the recovery room.

The wide smile she'd missed and loved to dearly greets her "Hey you."

"Mags." Alex whispers at the husky greeting.

It was the transfusion iv that makes the overjoyed agent stop her eyes widening when she follows the lines to the arm on the other side of it.

"It's Alex. Hi Alex." Linda's greeting is just as dreamlike as Maggie's. "See told yeah I can help my dude." She reminds with a pleased grin as her hand tightens in Maggie's against the side of the bed.

"Guess we have to wait to see if this means I get to join the supers club." Maggie laughs following Alex's eyes.

"It's amazing really Lin is like a cuter blonde Khan." Jamie gushes huddled together at a computer between Winn and Lena. "Only not as power crazy." Winn defends sharing a smile with Linda.

A shadow at her back has Alex turning.

"She's ready to talk now." Her mother says rather pleased with herself as she steps into the room sliding an arm around Alex's shoulders.

"Mom your hands." She wasn't just talking to her own mother as she spoke but Alura as well spotting the same telltale signs of a fight as the more super-powered mother follows her own from the hall into the crowding private room with Jeremiah Danvers rounding out the numbers again with the same red stains on his hands.

Eliza waves the worry in her daughter's voice off. "It's not mine sweetie."

"We did warn what would happen if any of those Cadmus monsters hurt our family." Alura reminds resting a comforting hand against Maggie's shoulder then turns to press a kiss to Linda's forehead. "We protect our own. She knew this when she chose her side. Saying she was one of us when she was a part of this." Alura gestures to Maggie with a pained look.

Alex's mind reeled.

"Would have gotten more out of her if J'onn hadn't stepped in." Jeremiah sighed bitterly.

Who were they talking about?

Where was Kelly?

"Hey, you."

Maggie.

Maggie. Was back. Maggie was back and Maggie was safe.

Maggie was reaching out to her. "Please?"

How could Alex say no?

"Come on Danvers time to save the day."

Kate's giddy call and the added weight of something landing on her that really gets the sleepy agent's attention forcing her eyes open as she bats away the jacket the cop tossed at her.

"Time to go get our Mags back."

Rory lingers long enough to give the waking agent a wet kiss before bounding off after Kate while Alex tries to sort out what her latest Maggie related dream had meant.

"Give them hell for me." Her father whispers as he pulls her in for a hug while Eliza talks to her more super-powered daughters "bring her home." He adds pulling back to meet his daughter's eyes. "Victory ice cream on me when this is over." he proposes "with extra everything." he winks making her smile and leaning back in for another grounding hug.


	16. Chapter 16

"You have to be joking." Was the only thing Alex could think of to say when the van stops across the road from their destination.

"It's actually rather genius." Kate comments from the driver's seat. "hide in plain sight you know since we blew up their last base camp and all." They all can tell she was trying to maybe lighten the mood, but it didn't help much. "Plus, no need to risk stealing anything to keep the Pandora project going cause it's all right there."

"Yeah cause if there's one thing Cadmus cares about its anything to do with risk." Alex sighs pressing her fingers against the bridge of her nose. This had to be a trap. They were wasting time again with another Cadmus trap when Maggie was who knew where being used as a Cadmus lab rat.

"She is really in there Alex." Linda promises from the back seat as if she could hear the doubt in her sister's mind. "Her heart is weak but still beating." That earns a hit against her side from Kara's elbow. "What?" she asks at the 'did you really just say that' look her twin was giving her.

Alex wasn't the only one surprised that the superpowered women had opted to ride with them in the DEO van rather than fly to the scene. At the moment Alex was glade of the choice. "Is she Kar?" she asks without taking her eyes away from the front of the building.

All those innocents coming in and out. All those unknowing Cadmus pawns. She could hear from her earpiece that J'onn was relaying a plan of attack.

The sisters eyes meet in the rearview mirror as Kara's head tilts like Linda's as she concentrates for a few seconds on the heartbeat in question. The walls where lead-lined and not even Brainy could crack the security system to give them eyes inside, but not even lead could protect against all her sister's powers. "She's holding on Al."

They all pretended not to see the few tears Alex hadn't been able to whip away sliding down her cheeks while those listening in on the coms pretended not to hear the director's teary sniffs as she gets herself back under control.

Going by the angle she guesses it was Linda that gives her a hug from the backseat but at the moment she can't be sure. All she knows is it is a hug she needed to push down the last of her pain and focus only on the mission at hand.

Getting her Maggie back and subdue anyone that get in her way.

She was finished playing around.

"Brainy what have you found on the plans for this place?" Alex questions using her most hardened director voice.

It takes longer than she would have liked for him to answer her. "The schematics were changed multiple times so there is no way of knowing which set are the real ones but it appears that the hospital was set up by a large private donation from a number of shell companies but the bulk of the funds we managed to trace back to a Maxwell Lord, but we can't find anything on the parent company they were working with. Its maddening."

"Wait Max Lord is a part of this too?" Alex couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Um, Alex."

It was Vaz this time she was heading up the Bata team on the southeast side of the building while J'onn ran things back at the hub.

"What's up V?"

"I knew it." Kate growls from the seat beside her as twin curses drown out what was left of Susan's words in her ear. Alex was about to ask her to repeat them when she spots her.

"What….this has to be some kind of mistake." She concludes watching as her girlfriend pause at the door to the Cadmus run building to pull out her cell phone after looking around the lot as if she knew she was being watched. "No. this… I mean she can't…."

Almost as soon as Kelly's eyes land on the van the door Kelly had been about to open was pushed open by none other than Maxwell Lord himself.

Betrayal and anger twist Alex's heart whilst she watches the two embrace as if reuniting with an old dear friend right before her eyes. "What's he saying?" she demands now more grateful than ever that she had not one but two super hearing aliens in the car with her. "Guys." She growls when neither sister answers. A glance behind her shows the reason being was that neither of her sisters were still sitting behind her.

For a change, it was Linda holding back Kara when she finally spies them just barely within a reasonable cover zone to keep the pair across the road from spotting them.

"Alex I'm going to need you to trust me." Going by the tone of his voice Alex knows she wasn't going to like J'onn's next words. "You and Kara need to come back here on the double. Kate you and Beta team stay on guard until I signal you to move in."

"Absolutely not J'onn. No way."

Despite leaving her out of the list to head back to the DEO Linda speaks up as well. "Papa bear they have our Maggie. We can't just leave our dude with those animals."

"I know and we're going to get her out but please—trust me on this." J'onn pleads and Alex can tell by the wind garbling words that he's already in root to them. "We already know what Lord can do concerning kryptonite and with Cadmus backing him…"

Kelly and Max had moved away now walking down the sidewalk toward a nearby coffee shop.

"Beta team hold position Kate you too please, Lin shadow Kelly and Max don't lose them. Alex and Kara go back to the hub. Eliza and Lena will brief you both when you get back." J'onn advises "Don't argue just go." He added before either Danvers sister could form a comeback.

"Now girls." Eliza's voice scolds from the coms when neither of her daughters moved from there positions.

The three sisters pulled one another into a long hug with defeated sights none of them wanting to leave the others side at the moment.

"They messed with the wrong family."

Alex and Kara both gave watery smiles at Linda's declaration as the three sisters rocked back on their heels without letting go of one another. "Don't let Kate or Vaz take all the fun okay?" Alex warns while Linda pouts nuzzling her head against her elder sister's shoulder. "you no fun Alex."

For a second after they parted Linda almost turned around just to check Kara was flying Alex back to the DEO when her elder sister fell into step with her on her way toward the coffee shop. But choosing instead to roll with it Linda slides her hand into J'onn's as they walked letting him take the lead while she keeps an ear on the heartbeat they'd come to save.

"I'm thinking cocoa and something sweet." 'Alex' suggest as they stop at the door just to be sure than their targets were still inside. They were sitting together in the corner of the room both with steaming cups in front of them, yet both were on their phones. "Perfect." Linda agrees taking care to keep from ripping the door off its hinges in her anger as they entered the shop.


	17. Chapter 17

When this was all over Linda vowed that somehow some way, she'd make them pay for what they'd done.

She and her 'Sister' were just trying to have a nice time bonding over a love of chess, hot cocoa, and an iced creamed Oreo treat when those monsters had struck. Or more specifically when one of the two Cadmus agents sitting at the corner table showed their hand in having Linda and 'Alex's' second round of hot cocoa drugged.

Not only do those demons owe her family an apology for upsetting them but Max now owes them all cocoa and an ice creamed Oreo cookie treat when this was over.

Linda guesses it was Lord given the smugness of his grin when she comes to what seems like minutes later. A look to her right showed her that J'onn was back to his normal 'Papa Bear' self being dragged more than lead to a chair in the middle of the room by two uninterested looking Cadmus agents while Linda herself was laying on a too-small sofa a few feet away from him. Her head hazy while the rest of her seemed to be on fire. Not just any fire.

This pain was one she'd only known a few times herself. Her last time being the one she'd thought would have been her last. The searing burn of Kryptonite.

"This wasn't part of our deal Maxwell." Kelly was saying. "You got what you wanted weeks ago. You don't need her. "

Linda's head pounds even harder having to listen to Max laugh as he moves to pour himself a drink from one of the many expensive-looking liquor bottles lining the bar behind his desk. His movements so like Lex's that Linda was having trouble keeping the two men apart in her pained state while Kelly stands on the other side her arms crossed in front of her as he speaks. "Your deal was you bring us everything the DEO has on Harun-El. Did you really think Allison would be alright with those out of date data files when the purest source of it literally walked in our front door?" he questions taking a seat drink in hand.

"I did not walk. You forced me and Papa to come with you." Linda grunted as she pushes her protesting body into a more straightened sitting position before giving up and returning to her more reclined state. "This whole time you were working with Cadmus?" she clarifies her gaze fixed in Kelly's direction "Do you not remember hearing what they did to my family? To Alex?"

"Shut up." One of the guards standing close to the head of the sofa growls his hands slapping across Linda's cheeks to quiet her.

Kelly moves so quickly that it takes Linda a few seconds to remember that her 'savior' wasn't superpowered. "Touch her again I'm breaking it." She threatens grabbing his arm to hold him back when Linda recoils from the blow "Go check the perimeter…and take Campbell with you." She orders her eyes flickering to the other stationary figure standing beside the door something like pain in her eyes seeing even more green in the young Kaznian's complexion as Linda blinks away the pain from the cut to her cheek. "Get away from me traitor." Snowbird yells when Kelly makes a move to check on her. "Don't you touch my Papa either." She growls when Kelly only sighs and moves to check on J'onn instead.

Her words seeming to rouse J'onn enough that he lifted his head as the door closed behind the retreating guards. "Lin?"

"Papa Bear." Linda sighs leaning against his side as best she could just to have some form of contact with her segregate father.

"I'm alright little one," J'onn assured he didn't need his powers to know how worried she'd been for him. Not that he had them at the moment given the power dampening units humming in the background. No doubt a Lord tech upgrade. "Just a headache." He tries to laugh but it comes out more pained than he'd intended.

"Nice of you to join us, Director Jones." Max smiles raising his liquor glass in greeting. "Or should I say, former director. I hear that our Agent Danvers is top dog now." He chuckles while somehow making the already unrelenting pounding against the Martian's head worsen.

"Yes, yes enough with the niceties." Kelly scolds her eyes still fixed on the smirking man behind the desk. "This isn't what Allison and I agreed to and you know it. They weren't part of the deal."

"Have you learned nothing?" Linda chuckles "Deal with Cadmus never go the way you want."

Max laughs lifting the glass to his lips "Oh no no no. This isn't just Cadmus anymore. This is something new." He tells them like a proud father about to fawn over a favored child. "Think of this as a merger into what Cadmus could have been with the right leadership." He continues taking a measured sip of the amber liquid he was holding while swirling the rest in his glass. "True we do share a majority of the same views as they had but Checkmate…."

"Shut up Maxwell."

"You're a knight among pawns Olsen. Don't start questioning us now."

Kelly's arms cross over her font once again the guarded mask back in place as the two hold eye contact.

"We've upheld our end of the deal to a T." The businessman points out. "You have your relationship with Alex just like you wanted and although I will admit it has been more amusing than I'd originally thought seeing that feisty butch cop being our little lab rat Allison says she's more use to us alive."

Linda whispers a string of curses not all of them because the stinging bite of the cuffs around her wrists she was still trying to get out of as she listened. Max seemed to be amused by that but chose not to comment. So like Lex. Even without Kara's memories of what he'd done to their sister Linda would already be hating him. "So now it's our turn to reap some of the rewards."

The look he was giving her made Linda's stomach turn but she fights back nausea and pain enough to force the words out "I want to see my dude."

"Your Dude?" Max scoffs his eyebrow raised.

"Sawyer. She wants to see Sawyer." Kelly translates trying yet again to get J'onn at least to drink some of the water she'd poured in an attempt to at last keep them hydrated. She was taking a chance given how Linda looked ready to murder her if she got the chance. Lucky for her the kryptonite was keeping her in her place.

Max rolls his eyes. "Then why not just say she wanted to see her?" Kelly shrugs a shoulder at the question.

"I stay with you, but you at least let Papa see Maggie before you let him go." Linda bargains looking from the smirking man behind the desk then over to a sickly looking J'onn and back again.

"You don't have much of a choice in the matter of staying or going Kara .2." Max reminds standing up and moving around to the front of his desk. "As for letting J'onn here go…." He muses and Linda guesses he would have gone on gloating but a rather loud alarm cuts him off.

Kelly slides behind the desk pulling up the security feeds of the lower floors while Max advances on the restrained pair. "I told them I spotted them." She groans not looking forward to the conversation about to happen as she watches her possibly soon to be ex-girlfriend and her equally angry and super-powered sister storming the halls like twin hurricanes.

"Looks like your getting your wish super twin." Max decides

J'onn tries to come to her aide but after a few swipes from his watch, Linda can only watch in horror as her 'Space Dad' crumbles off his chair nothing but pain in his expression as he folds into himself. "A little idea I picked up from a _'Star Trek'_ episode." Max explained, "Like a white-hot fire poker right to your brain huh J'onn." He questions "A little something 'your dude' helped us tune-up I might add." He added dragging a struggling Linda back from her pained Papa Bear.

"Also." Max muses as Kelly rushes around the front of the desk to try and help the whimpering Martian.

Linda tries to push his raising hand down mostly to avoid her Papa being hurt anymore but in her weakened state, she may as well have been pushing smoke for all the good it did her.

"Time to go I think yes?" he asks as if commenting on the weather while Kelly holds in curses as she presses her hand against the bullet wound, he put into her thigh. The shot is just shy of a fatal wound.

Linda makes it to the door of the room before she gives in to the darkness of her long exposer to the green rock searing her system with every breath she took.

* * *

When she next opens her eyes, Max was absent, but it only takes a roll of her head for her mouth to open in a soundless scream as soon as her eyes refocused on the world around her.

She'd woken up right into something straight out her nightmares.

Only this was somehow worse. Because this wasn't something, she was experiencing herself not second hand from her sister's lingering memories in her head. Only this time instead of her beloved Alex it was her newest sister.

The tiny one with the wildness of a tiger in a fight the one that always carried the scent of leather and scotch when she hugged her. The cause of her eldest sister's happiest of smiles just from hearing her name or walking into a room. The one who'd adopted the cutest of cutest dogs and named her after the sun.

This was her Maggie.

Her Maggie.

Her Maggie laying almost suspended in a tank of liquified kryptonite. Her Maggie that going by her slowing heartbeat was losing her fight to hang on.

Alex's Maggie was slipping away just feet from her, and Linda could do nothing but crawl on her stomach toward the tank with pitiful sobs. _'So much for being a God.'_ She thinks feeling more and more like Gadsby in his last moments reaching out toward the green light at the end of the dock or the ringing telephone on the end of a too far away table as she drags herself more into the green fire of the kryptonite not caring at all about the black clade military-looking team surrounding her or the soft furry one on her belly beside her helping her along.

A gentle hand against her back startles her with a cursed cry as the move was like fresh salt into her already painful kryptonite created wounds.

"We got her now."

The rough voice startles her more than the soft kisses Rory is lapping at the injured woman's cheeks as does the looming blurry figure in red and black kneeling beside her

"You did good Superberries." Kate praises momentarily shedding her Batwoman voice as pained blue eyes find her own. "You brought her back." The older woman whispers while Linda looks from the seeming to be sleeping woman being pulled from the torture tank to the still masked veganity and back again.

Alex was there her expression changing between relief to fear to determination after a glance at something Linda couldn't see as she bends over the sleeping tiny one laying too still on the DEO med stretcher.

Linda grins happily content that the last sensation besides the searing burn of the fire in her veins is her mini furry sun snuggling against her side trying to keep her away just by her closeness while the last thing her blurry eyes see before falling into the green rock created darkness is her sister pressing her lips to the tiny scotch scented ones like a tactical gear clade princess kissing her tiny tiger of a sleeping beauty back to life.


	18. Chapter 18

Maggie's body was healing nicely the patchwork of bruises already fading while the broken bones continue to mend one after another under the DEO and Alex's care but her mind. Healing her mind was a completely different story.

Will she even be the same Maggie when she wakes up?

It was a terrifying question that had been running in her head more and more the longer she sat at the sleeping woman's bedside.

Rise and fall

That had become her only safety now whilst the rest of her world was sprawling over that repeating question. Her heart had already stopped twice under Alex's hands she wasn't going to risk it again. Not when she'd just gotten her back.

That steady rise and fall of her chest was really the only thing keeping her from dishing out some well-deserved payback the longer she was forced to wait to see those detecting light brown eyes looking into her own.

Even if she was too late to try again with a relationship Alex wasn't ready for Maggie to leave her life again. Not by a long shot.

Such a simple motion. Like the soft push-pull of a wave.

It grounded her. Calmed her.

"Alex please." Her patient tries again breaking the spell of her calm. "Please talk to me."

Despite the anger now pulsing in her system her hands never wavered really, she was mentally counting each beat from the monitor in the adjoining room to keep her cool. Surely she could work out by now that Alex wasn't in the mood to talk. Not only had this woman who had claimed to like her in more than just a friends kind of way offered _her Maggie _up to those Checkmate devils without much thought as to what would happen to the detective afterward, but she had just stood by and hell had possibly even helped those monsters in violating the woman Alex loved.

They'd played with her mind on top of bruises and breaking her body doing Rao knew what whilst using her for their unwilling lab rat. Alex wanted nothing more than to vent her tangled mess of emotions on the one she was sure had suggested the idea in the first place, yet she held it in.

A smile brushed her lips as she thought of someone else who hadn't been so good at that task. No one blamed her really. Truly she had every right to want revenge.

"Alex?"

Her eyes didn't drop from Rory's just yet and she had to admit it was cute to see when the pup's still red-stained lips pullback in the start of a growl heckles up when Kelly's restrained hand moved to rest against the zoned-out agent's arm.

"If you wanna keep them I'd suggest you drop them, Olsen. She's already gone after Maxie."

Alex chuckles at Kate's warning call almost forgetting that Maggie's new girlfriend had taken over her vigil when Kelly had been brought in.

The bite in question only a nip really considering Kara had intervened before the angry pup could do any real damage. Going by the look of betrayal she can still catch in the dog's eyes as they shift to the woman in question quietly reading in the corner of the room Alex was sure that had she not been stopped Rory Sawyer would have shown just how much Max Lord at least shouldn't have messed with her human mom or the rest of the dog's chosen family.

Linda had begged to take over the 'heroing' for the night needing a distraction Alex guesses remembering Rory's less than pleased whimpering when her sister had spun into her own version of the now shared 'super suite'.

"I will be safe little one." Linda had promised in a soft whisper as she tucked her much loved cape around the displeased pup. "Take care of them until I get back alright?" she'd bargained her eyes like Rory's lingering on Alex herself one hand holding Maggie's while her other hand played with the rings hanging around her neck before the 'youngest' Danvers sister had left the room.

Kelly takes a shaky breath as Alex soothes out the last bit of tape before she pushes her chair away wordlessly saying she was finished with her.

"Alex." She tries again visibly flinching at the soft snap of the gloves as Alex pulls them off but this time its Vaz that quiets her. "Let's go." The agent orders as Alex turns her back to them preferring to stair passed the glass wall into the adjoining room at the woman that still held her heart.

"Hey, Al?"

She could see the sting of tears in Kelly's eyes when she turns around at Jamie's questioning call from the doorway but that was the only glance, she spared the deceiving woman being wheeled toward the door and back to her holding cell.

"What's up J?" Alex asks her throat a bit scratchy from lack of use as she draped an arm across Jamie's shoulders returning the younger woman's comforting hug with one of her own.

"She speaks." Kate jokes with a hint of a sarcastic edge to her tone as she offers over a cup of ice chips to help the agent's scratchy throat. "Speak again oh badass angel." She adds with a playful wink as the pair switch places. Alex rolling her eyes as she takes a seat biting down on a few of the icy pieces as Kara giggling behind her book.

Jamie takes a seat on the floor beside Kara's leg before she answers while Kara shifts closer to her as Jamie leans in against the added heat the Kryptonian gives off while the super turns a page in her book. "Eliza wanted to be sure you were taking care of yourself." She admits once they've settled.

Alex shakes her head "I had a power bar earlier." Was all she answered with, but Kate shakes her head as she moves in untangling Linda's cape from Rory to drape it over Alex instead. "Not food Danvers." She reminds earning a glare from Alex.

Only Maggie was allowed to call her by her last name.

"She keeps trying to talk to me but I just….I can't." Alex confesses after a pause pulling Maggie's hand up to brush it with her lips. Rory shimmies up the bed seeming to want to be pressed against both her favored humans at once in comfort. "At least not right now." Alex finishes with a guilty sigh as she rests her head against the side of Maggie's bed.

"Well, when you are ready give one of us a heads up alright?" Jamie says in a yawn. "I'm sure Mags will get a real kick out of seeing you use those legendary 'I can take you out with just my index finger' thingy. I know I would."

Alex shakes her head with a shy smile. "Deal."


	19. And nowBar Fight

**Author Notes: **I know this will be out of character for our favorite badass agent but cut Alex and me some slack, please. She's going soft with everything that's been going on and I wanted to try my hand at writing scene like this.

*runs to hide in a corner* (lol)  
Happy reading.

* * *

The only consolation Alex can find in her current satiation was that Jamie and Rory had been spared.

It was a little victory, but it was enough to bring a ghost of a smile to her lips as she struggles yet again to catch her breath. The scent of some strong and no doubt alien liquor fills her noise whilst her dark-haired attacker leans in pressing the broken pool cue harder against the struggling agent's throat slowly choking off what she'd managed to regain of her air.

In truth, she didn't know her soon to be killer by name, but she did know her by sight. She'd been a regular in the times Alex and her then girlfriend and later fiancée had frequented the eerily deserted bar.

'Should have been our first clue.' Alex muses trying to fight against the coming darkness of suffocation enough to somehow shift the bulk of 'angry dark hair' again regretting her choice in not bringing her favored gun along that morning when she had been dragged out into the fresh air and early morning sunshine by her much stronger younger sister.

Alex can remember Maggie even joking with her over a game at the very table Alex was pinned to one time after catching Alex's soon to be murder watching them from across the then crowded bar as they played a game that Maggie would eventually win.

"Seems you have some competition, Danvers."

Maggie had joked a little buzzed at the time from all the shots of the pricier scotch that had been regularly dropped off for her while Alex pouted until her teasing detective had pinned her against the side of the table attacking the field agent's lips with her scotch tasting ones until Alex couldn't remember her own name much less their glaring audience.

"She trusted you. She loved you and you just tossed her aside for what? Some stupid ideas? That alone to me makes you not deserve to live DEO trash. I'd give you a longer list, but I don't think you're going to hear all of them." She smiled her knee pressing even harder against Alex's stomach on top of the surprisingly still intact pool table.

The one thing Alex was upset with as her eyes closed without her permission was that it wasn't her time with Maggie replaying behind her eyes as it had the last time, she'd been so close to her end.

It was a replay of her day before her unfair bar brawl in the middle of the afternoon as a muffled sound of a cannon blast finally manages to push 'angry drunk' off of her finally allowing her to catch a weak gasp of air before she falls into the darkness.

* * *

"What do you think ladies? One more block?"

Jamie groans out a grunted "Come on Cap." at the question. Rory lets out a more pleasing reply with an enthused bark at the idea. Linda grinned already nodding her consent to the added time. She had missed the warm feel of real sunlight on her skin. She could see why her chosen family seemed to prefer starting the days' activities in the early hours when the rest of the town wasn't awake, but the sun was warm and beckoning.

Alex, however, wasn't as keen as she accepted a sip from the water bottle Linda was offering. Chilled but not icy. One of the perks of having 'Artic breath' on her list of superpowers. Just how she liked it after a hard run. It wasn't that she was tired not by any means honestly, she felt like she could run every street in Nation City at least twice more before that happened with all the pent-up energy she'd been carrying since her now ex-girlfriend had her first real love stolen from her in the dead of night like some real-life horror movie.

They had already made it completely across town from Maggie making Alex increasingly uneasy about going any farther. She shouldn't have caved into Linda's pout so easily. If she'd just been stronger against it, she could be curled up with some dull report and holding Maggie's hand while she heals up.

It was Linda that draws Alex's eyes toward the sky with Rory quickly joining in whilst Jamie jogged over to a newly opened side shop dragging Kate with her on the hunt for a replacement plastic doggie dish after Linda accidentally crushed the one they'd originally bought along earlier in the day.

At first, Alex panicked her mind going to two possibilities. Either one; her other sister was on her way to either prevent or help calm some possible accident or Kara was catching up with them because something had happened to her tiny detecting sleeping beauty.

She knew it was too soon to lave Maggie alone.

"Mom and Dad wanted to be sure you really were taking your health seriously." Her sister explains by way of explaining why she was trailing them as she floats down to a more street level in all her super suited glory only to be pulled the rest of the way down by her laughing twin for a greeting hug.

"Adopted spacey parents or you know the blood-related ones?" Jamie questions around the cookie she was munching on with a joking smile that even has Kate cracking a smile as they rejoin the trio causing the Danvers sisters to roll their eyes in perfect unison.

"Come on Kara. What's the real reason you're tailing us?" the police chief presses handing over the newly bought and stronger made dog dish to Alex, yet her eyes never once drop from Kara's.

It's Linda that answers her. Visibly vibrating from the excitement almost causing Alex to overfill the bowl in her hand from the surprise at her response. "My Dude is waking…." she starts to say but stops short before she could finish her eyes unfocusing as all color seems to drain away. "Oh, Rao."

A stronger wave of panic washes over her overpowering the flash of knee-weakening relief that had just blossomed seconds before in Alex's chest.

"Go. Just go Kara. Go." Was all Alex asks as Linda and Kara listened so something no human could hope to catch. She takes off faster than Alex had seen in a long while leaving Linda to explain to the less superpowered hearing trio.

"A breakout…at the DEO."

"What?" Kate demands

"The holding cells...all of them...they've just been deactivated somehow..." Linda nodes listening harder.

"Please tell me Maggie's protected. And Eliza what about Lena and Winn? God is J'onn going to be alright. Is he even awake yet either?" Jamie lists panicking.

"Why are we still standing here?" Kate questions her eyes on Linda as she wraps her arms around Alex's waist keeping her on her feet as she struggles to catch her breath.

A breakout. There was a breakout at the DEO just when the first woman she'd ever truly, deeply cared for the one who finally managed to get Alex to accept who she really was wakes up from being trapped in a literal hell of her own mind by those demon 'Cadmus' agents.

How could the day get any worse?

"Alex, I need you to breathe with me alright? Can you do that for me?" The tenderness in Kate's voice stuns her while Alex continues clinging onto Linda's arms.

Jamie slowly counts to ten while Kate directs her in a breathing exercise after Alex gives a weak little node. Rory whimpers gently resting her head against Alex's back when Linda guides her to her knees on the sun-warmed pavement of the sidewalk without lowering her arms which Alex was more than grateful for as her mind continued to spiral with the possible 'what ifs'.

She knows they should be rushing back that they should be helping as best they can. She was the dammed Director after all. Her agents needed her. Her family needed her. Maggie needed her. Yet even with all of that she just couldn't make herself move out of her sister's steel strong arms.

"Again," Linda demands in a soft purr when her sister's heart rate wasn't as calm as she liked. After an agreeing node from Kate and a little coxing for Alex after assuring her that Rory wasn't going to leave her nor were any of them, Jamie started counting a second time.

"What do you need right now Danvers?" Kate asks in a low voice watching Alex bury her face in Rory's scruff. "'aggie." Alex mumbles in answer her face still pressed against Rory's neck. She feels more than sees Linda shaking her head at that. Of course, she'd think that taking Alex in her current state to a building in currently locking in an all-out mini-war was a bad idea. Even Alex herself knew it was but she couldn't help it.

The DEO was where Maggie was.

Her Maggie who had woken from one version of hell into another with the alarms, the scrambling agents, and the no doubt sounds of fighting in the hallways.

"Compromise." Jamie offers. "We take you to that cool bar Mags would tell us about. 'Dollywood' was it? It's close to the DEO, right? Like a block or so yeah?" Linda nodes for her letting Alex continue to snuggle into Rory's soothing warmth. "Okay then." Alex peeks over long enough to see Jamie node "You, me, and Ror bear hang out there until you feel up to re-kicking some alien butts. Lin and Cap." Again, Alex peeks over at her this time to see her gesturing toward Kate. "can go on ahead and make sure that not all the good fights end before you can supervise the dumbbells being tossed back into their cells where they belong."

Alex nodes grudgingly loosening her iron hold on Linda as she untangles from Rory as well and climbs back to her feet. "A drink sounds nice." She reasons hating how small and childlike her voice sounded.

Maggie was going to have a field day with the easing when she finds out how soft she'd become.

"Hey."

Jamie's arm replaces Linda's around Alex's waist as the other two take off toward the other side of town.

"She'll be okay."

Alex nodes in quiet answer resting her head against the other woman's shoulder as they started back down the sidewalk with Rory padding beside them alert and uneasy.

"It's okay to be soft something. We're human." Rory gave a little bark at that "What? Jamie asks earning a shy smile from Alex as both sets of eyes find the duel colored ones of the dog at their side while they are forced to wait for a crosswalk sign to change. "Oh, come on you know what I mean Ror." Rory huffed by way of answering nudging her head against Alex's leg.

"I know. Such a softie. Don't let your Mama know okay?"

Rory gave her a happy smile licking at her hand while she scratched behind the pup's ear.

It was Jamie that slows her steps once they'd made the final turn into the side street that would take them to what had once been Alex and Maggie favored hang out. Even Rory looked uneasy as she pads along beside them.

"You okay?"

Jamie hesitates her eyes scanning the alleyway twice before she answers. "Just…reminds me a little too much of my own home turf." She shrugs her hand resting at her hip as if reaching for a weapon she wasn't carrying.

"Yeah, but unlike your turf, our resident hero can be called in the daytime." Alex tries to joke "You know when she isn't already saving the day." She adds wincing at the not so happy images of what could be going on.

Rory's soft whine of a bark shakes her out of her head as the pup jogs ahead of them still tense but curious as she starts sniffing around the door.

"They allow dogs here, right?" Jamie asks only to pause seeming to be fighting down a laugh for some reason after the pup finished marking her clam on the side of the bar door. "Told you, so didn't I? You shouldn't have so much water you goofball." She jokes as she tugs Alex along as she taps on the door.

Alex shifted as soon as the metal slide groaned out of place mustering up her voice to say the password she'd first heard from the lips of the woman that changed her life but almost as soon as her eyes meet the ones on the other side of the door it opened.

"What do you think Ror? Water, some club soda and a shot or two of scotch for our badass…. Um, Al? Are you sure this is the right bar?"

Alex was thinking the same as the door slams closed on the ghost town of a normally packed off-world bar.

They are on them a heartbeat later with the speed of two deadly coiled snakes.


	20. Chapter 20

Later she will feel guilt over only sparing the smallest of glances at Alex's too still form as she tackles her attacker to the floor. At the moment all she can think is _'Mom will fix her. Mom will make her better.'_

"Oh look. Blondie's back." The woman sneers pushing herself back to her feet. Linda doesn't react other than a glare as her opponent sizes her up with an amused smile. "Gotta say Blondie. _Loving_ the new look. Don't get me wrong I really like the shy nerd look but this…"

Any other time Linda would have been pleased with the praise of her workout gear choices even if it was disheveled from all the fighting, she'd been doing to protect her new family and extended DEO family from being hurt. Snug-fitting running pants that remind her a lot of the ones her first 'family' had provided when she'd reached that guard post and a gray tank top, she'd borrowed from Alex. And her no finger gloves that were just too comfortable not to wear everywhere. The shoes Eliza picked out the first time she'd tried them on had made her feel like she was walking on clouds even she was on the ground.

"_Hot_."

Linda's jaw ticked her arms folding over her chest as she too sized up her opponent. "You attacked my sister. Hurt my friends." She reminds

The face in front of her changed from pleased interest to deadly cold. "Oh please. First off, I may be tipsy I'll admit it, but I'd never hurt a pup regardless of my alcohol intake especially Mags's dog. Second, the other cutie is fine just out of the way while I have some payback."

Linda's eyes flickered for half a second over her shoulder just to check. She grins at seeing her Dude's ex Darla was busy wrapping up her bleeding hand cursing under her breath as she locks the door to the back room behind her heading back toward the destroyed bar.

"And lastly." Linda's smile dropped at the foul bite of the words. Icy blue eyes once again lock on iron grey. "That bitch broke the heart of the woman I care about. One that would have been mine if she hadn't come into the picture. Maggie didn't deserve what that trash of sister did to her."

The resulting fight was swift and in Linda's mind too short to really be considered a real battle as sounds of curses and breaking glass and wood fill the room as the two crash into the bar breaking it in half as they land sending more glass raining down on them from broken bottles over their heads.

Lex's voice in her head reprimands for giving in to pitiful emotions but that only makes Linda strike harder as it blends with the memories of her sister's and Maggie's too slow heartbeats reminding her again of how she'd failed to protect them when they'd needed her the most.

The unknown woman beneath her becoming the target of all her bottled-up emotions and self-hatred. Linda didn't even stop when hot blood spills onto her clenched fists.

The soft grip of a hand against her shoulder pauses the burning sting of fire from taking over when simply punching out her frustrations wasn't enough anymore.

Yet her mother doesn't seem at all frightened when Linda's glowing orange eyes find her warm blue ones. "That's enough sweetheart." She'd been working on her Russian it seemed. Her mother always so considerate.

Eliza's hand closes around Linda's blood-covered one pulling her to her feet. "Alura is with her." she promises dulling some of her daughter's panic when Linda's eyes go to the empty table where before her sister lay unmoving her heart rate so slow in Linda's ears. Too slow.

"We'll take care of her." Vaz's voice behind them comes in a rasp. Seems that unlike what Linda had hoped her sister's second hadn't come from the DEO battle completely unscathed as Linda's guilty eyes find her victim's even with her alien genetics Linda had really as Alex or Maggie would put it 'done a number on her'. Already a DEO field medic team was tending to her whilst another heads into the back to free Rory and check on Jamie. Darla seems to have vanished on the way from the back room to the main bar.

Rory comes taring out of the back her muzzle and paws stained red from trying to scratch and bite the door out of her way. Linda is ready for her scooping her up before the growling dog could move farther than a step toward the half ring of agents huddled around 'angry dark hair's' groaning form.

"Easy little one." Susan murmurs breaking from her steely agent persona and for a second Linda can't decide which one of them Vaz was talking to. She finds a seat with difficulty considering the tornado-like mess of the bar and her freshly wounded body protesting the movement. A medkit already at her side as Eliza guides her trembling daughter toward the chosen spot well away from the pool table that had for a horrifying moment had been Alex's death bed.

Duel colored eyes and a wet tongue break her gaze with the dreaded table.

"Gah Rory." Linda huffs as the dog climbs into her lap still attacking her with kisses. Linda's arms wind around her letting the beat of her heart sooth a little more of her guilt.

She doesn't want to face the rest of her family. Her sisters. Maggie.

"Kara, Kare sweetheart slow down….and in English, please. My Kryptonian is a little rusty."

Linda looks up at the worry in her mother's voice and in Kara's.

"What? What's wrong?" Vaz asks adding her own layer of worry to the mix. Obviously, she'd turned her com off or it had been damaged, and she hadn't thought to replace it before tagging along with what was available of Omega team.

"Alex is in surgery they are hopeful but Maggie….Maggie is missing, Kelly isn't in her cell anymore...and they can't find Alex's gun."


	21. Chapter 21

"You know if you do that long enough your leg may end up phasing right through the floor? Kind of surprised it hadn't already." He ends in a laugh as he takes a seat beside her. Close enough to be comforting but far enough apart that he won't crowd her.

Until he points it out, she hadn't noticed the rapid shaking of her leg. Although she hadn't noticed much of anything apart from the sounds of Alex's resting heart rate from the floor below. She'd been using it as a calming distraction with Kara and both their mothers choosing to head out on yet another hunt for their tiny detective rather than stay pacing the halls like Linda had done before taking a seat instead as she waited.

"Sorry." She sighs needing to consciously make the effort to at least slow the movement.

Alex had been moved into recovery a few minutes before. The surgery had been a long one. Multiple broken bones needed repairing, internal bleeding stitched back together. She knew there was more but remembering everything would just reignite her anger.

"What are we going to tell her?" Linda wonders aloud unlocking herself enough from her curled place against the wall to rest her head against his shoulder as the warm band that was his arm tighten around her shoulders drawing her against his side to press a soft kiss against the side of her head.

Everyone with a brain knew as soon as she was awake even with the temporary loss of her voice because of the fight Alex would ask for Maggie. Was she alright? Was she safe?

How where they going to tell her already worried sister, they'd lost her soulmate _again_?

"Take everything throw-able out of her reach first I guess." Jeremiah Danvers offers with a laugh earning the smallest start of a smile from Linda. "Wise choice." The young super agrees pillowing her head against her 'human Papa's' shoulder. "Not that she'd need anything within reach considering Kara or I could just….."

It was her other father that answers this time with a warm chuckle of "What did your mothers say about _not _tossing people into space?" as he clams the open spot on Linda's other side. The young hero immediately curling against his side making her 'human papa' give a little pout and mutter about becoming second best. She interlocks their fingers instead sending him a shy smile what quickly morphs into an angry pout as she turns back to her 'Papa Bear'

"But she deserves…." She started to defend but it was Jeremiah that answers this time. "What Kelly did to our family is unforgivable, but we can't incinerate her for it." Angry tears sting her eyes, but she holds them back. She can't cry. Not yet. _'Gods do not cry.'_ She whispers to herself. She hates herself for falling back on her own traitors' ideals but for now, she needs them.

When her family is back together again then she will cry. She will cry happy tears instead of sad guilty ones. Right now, her family needs her to be strong, so she'll be strong.

For them.

"That detective of yours is a sly one, Alexandra."

Well. that means that at least one of her mothers was back from her search.

Linda still feels a jolt of surprise at being able to hear that breath of a laugh again in more than just memories. For so long she'd thought her mother dead and gone. Just like the rest of Krypton. "You'll have to introduce us properly once we find her. Last time your sisters hoarded her time cheating me out of my introduction." It Linda's turn to grin when she adds an even softer "after all I think it only fair that I officially meet the woman that has so completely captured my little girl's heart."

Linda had to bite her lip to keep from laughing aloud at the tease. Alex groaning in her sleep as if on some kind of que only adds to the adorableness of the moment.

"Sshh sweetheart." Alura murmurs and after a quick glance passed the floor Linda can clearly see her mother leaning over her sister's bedside calming the pain flashing across Alex's face with a brush of her hand in her hair. "It's alright now. You're safe now my brave girl." Alex turns into the touch without opening her eyes. "That's it. You're safe. Just rest. Rest now." Alura soothes her fingers gently unclenching Alex's from the sheets.

J'onn's shoulder ended up being Linda's pillow this time when her mother started singing that soft Kryptonian lullaby from Kara's childhood. The one her sister had nearly forgotten herself since losing their first home.

Next time her eyes open it was because of the sounds of shouting floating down the hallway rudely rousing her from a surprisingly pleasant rest considering the stressful events going on in her life.

"Goddammit let me go. Why won't you believe me? I'm trying to help."

"Yeah, we've all seen what your help has done so far." Susan growls "Now let's get you back where you belong shall we?"

Linda groaned as she rolled over onto her back as the traitor continued yelling for rights, she'd lost the second she turned her back on her sister on their family.

"I know right, so loud." Her own much softer tone sighed pulling the falling blanket that was Linda's long cape back across her shoulders as she takes the seat J'onn had been using before Linda had closed her eyes.

Kara's single shake of her head when their eyes meet crushes the hope blossoming in Linda's chest. "We only found _Her."_ the original of the two admitted her voice breaking "Dad said they'd take over but…." Her sister stopped her head dropped her shoulders already shaking as tears spill from the corner of her eyes. Luckily for Linda her twin didn't fight as she wrapped her arms around her. "Rao what are we going to tell Alex?" she asks between sobs. "She's out their Lin. Our Maggie. She's out their alone, scared, running a fever if what the DEO docs said was true."

_'Armed'_ Linda adds in her head when Kara didn't add it aloud. Since Kara hadn't said anything about finding their sister's favored weapon on the traitor and Vaz had said she'd had every inch of the DEO quadruple checked after everyone had been contained once again then the only option left was that Maggie had it.

What their tiny unstable detective was going to do with the weapon was a question for when they found her.

"I've looked everywhere." Kara sobs in defeat "Everywhere I can think of that she would go withing a reasonable limit given how groggy she seemed in the security feed."

It surprises the crying super to feel more than see her twin smile at the news. Going by the shake in her hold Linda wasn't holding up much better than Kara herself. "Well, it's a good thing you have two heads for thinking then huh?"

Kara blinks apparently not getting the joke tears still sliding from her eyes as their eyes meet. "Let me try." Linda summarizes as she wipes away some of the moisture with her thumb. "You stay here. Eat, rest, finish that article you've been stalling Snapper on."

Kara groaned having completely forgotten about her 'normal job' until now. "Write it for me." She moans against her twin's shoulder making Linda laugh harder as she shakes her head leaning in to press a soft kiss against Kara's in support as she stands.

"Sorry Kara Danvers, I have a tiny tiger to find." Linda reminds giggling a little at the accented purr of her own voice and the repeated groan from her super suited clad sister as she starches her arms over her head to work out the stiffness whilst she heads toward the balcony leaving her sister grumbling behind her.

Obediently her body lifts like a feather on the wind taking her out into the darkened sky as soon as she'd stepped out into the chilly afternoon.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Linda turns in midair hovering just out of reach of the balcony.

The speaker melts out of the shadows her arms crossed tight over her front and a scowl on her lips. "I'm going to go look for Maggie." She answers feeling more like a child caught doing something wrong as she looks from her unmoving companion to the nightly buzz of the city.

"Every second we….." Linda starts to say but Lena holds up her hand to quiet her as Linda hovers closer to the edge of the balcony then deices to fold herself so she was sitting cross-legged in midair under that stern yet compassionate gaze of the better Luthor standing on the balcony as she moves as well taking a step closer until her hands are resting against Linda's knees as she leans in.

Caught off guard by the move Linda wondering if the beautiful Luthor woman was about to kiss her given the number of times Lena's eyes flickered to her lips then up to her eyes as if asking for permission as she continues to speak to the zoned-out super. The brush of Lena's hand against her hair brushing it back behind her right ear as she fits the DEO issue comm link into her ear isn't helping matters either.

She knew from Kara's thoughts in her head that Alex would do that a lot with Maggie before they kissed. Even the snippets of her sister's time with Mon-El, James and even her stolen kiss with Winn has given her even more insight into the practice than her time simply reading about it.

Linda had never been kissed before herself. Not like that anyway. She was curious as to what it would be like for her when she was finally able to be kissed by a lover rather than by those, she considered family.

Lena's lips curled upwards in the faintest hint of a smile under her gaze as if she could hear the questions bouncing around in Linda's mind as their eyes met again.

"At last take a jacket before you fly off, Superberries. It's cold out here." Kate Kane advised putting an end to the little moment the two had been having, yet even as she rocked back on her heels putting much more distance between them as was needed the ghost of a smile never wavered from Lena's lips.

At first, as she blinks out of her dazed state Linda assumed the jacket that was then dropped onto her crossed legs was Kate's own given how warm it was until she pulled it on. Alex's shampoo and distinct scent tickled the blonde super's nose as she pulled up the collar against a sudden burst of cold on the air.

"Go get the girl, SuperRed."

If anyone asks Linda will deny the fact her eyes return to Lena at the comment as Kate turns sliding back into the shadows leaving only Lena to watch as Linda lifts higher into the protective cover of the darkened clouds.


	22. Chapter 22

Admittedly she can't tell how long she stays drifting on the current and listening to the buzz of the world when a three-track playlist catches her attention. It was so calming apart from actively listening in on her sister's heartbeats that is. She'd almost lost them several times already she wasn't going to let that happen again.

_Just Give Me a Reason_

_Perfect_

_All Through the Night_

She can't understand why those three songs have such a draw for her as she concentrates harder when the last in her mental list is played again.

_All through the night_  
_I'll be awake and I'll be with you_

"…..For the love of God. Pick something else or I put that pretty head of yours through the dang thing."

It's the familiar hum of a weapon powering up after the slurred threat that has her speeding down into the twinkling darkness as fast as her surprised state will allow.

Linda only barely had time to right herself before she slams face-first into the pavement of the side ally. This time she doesn't need her x-ray vision to spot her target as she pulls the door to the bar open and almost completely off its hinges as she steps into the roar of the bar. Thankfully for them the bartender hasn't caught on to the fact Maggie was 'packing heat' as she thinks it's called given how tightly packed the crowd was around the bar as compared to the rest of the place.

Maggie is sitting alone her table the one right in front of the still playing jukebox nursing a traded off row of amber and clear shot glasses lined in front of her.

Faster than she maybe should have Linda is crossing the distance between the door and the back table her hand closing fast around the drunken man's wrist twisting his outstretched arm behind his back before he can do more than advance on the sickly, yet armed detective curled up on the chair on the other side of the corner table.

Not hard enough to rally hurt him but enough to get his attention. "Stand down comrade." She warns just loud enough that only he can hear her when his blurry angry eyes find her own.

Maggie is deathly quiet her shoulders hunched even more once she'd gotten a look at her rescuer. Even in her current feverish and buzzed state she'd know that body anywhere. Especially when its clade in that jacket. "When things look their worst come straight to a bar remember?" She laughs picking up one of the amber filled shots and draining it down before turning the glass over as she sets it back down on the tabletop.

Linda tilts her head puzzling over the word choice as she takes the seat across from her friend whilst the would-be bar brawler sulks off rubbing his shoulder and grumbling under his breath. She can tell just by looking at her that Maggie's fever was far from breaking. If anything, it was worse than before.

"We need to get you home Mags." She tries to coax. Apart from her clammy looking appearance, Linda could also feel Maggie's elevated temperature from across the table. She needed to get her cooled down and most important she needed to get her back to Alex.

Maggie snorts slamming another empty shot glass down upside down on the tabletop. "I don't have a home." She growls her eyes meeting Linda's for a half-second before dropping again.

Linda shakes her head "That's not true. You always have a home with us my D…." She starts to defend

Maggie barks a laugh her shaking fingers clawing at her hair in an attempt to get it out of her unfocused eyes. "'We can't be together.' That's what you said to me."

Tears sting her eyes as Linda looks across the table. She'd known of course. Alex had tearfully recounted every painful moment of her breakup to Kara. Just hearing it from Maggie made the phantom pain she felt on her sister's behalf burst open and ache anew. Unfortunately, matters of the heart weren't something nether she or Kara could make better just by punching it enough times.

"You can't still be my home and not want to be with me at the same time Danvers. That's not how it works."

Linda's hands flashes out knocking Maggie's away as she reaches for another of the shots. She knows human alcohol will have no effect on her but it least it will give her something to do with herself as she tries to talk Maggie into coming with her. To her surprise, it's the cool taste of water that hits her tongue rather than the fleeting burn of vodka as she 'd been expecting as she drains the glass

"To hydration." Maggie laughs holding up her own glass this one, one the amber filled ones in answer at the surprise flickering across the face of the blonde version of Alex sitting across from her. Not bad but Maggie definitely preferred the woman that still held her heart with darker hair. "Hey Jonzy….'nother round please…." She called over the den of the rest of the bar.

Linda shakes her head pushing her chair back from the table making Maggie flinch as if she'd be struck by the act. "We are going home now Maggie Sawyer." She says leaving no room for misinterpretation of her meaning as she rounds the table toward the shivering woman on the other side.

Thankfully for one of them at least when they finally stopped moving, they were already in a bathroom.

Blonde Alex kneels beside her holding her hair back as Maggie empties what little she had in her stomach into the toilet. Looking back on it now she couldn't really remember the last she'd actually eaten anything other than those few bits of trail mix she shared with Lin. Another wave of nausea keeps her from asking her ex how she'd gotten them out of the bar so fast. Let alone where they ended up.

"Don't feel good." She mumbles against the side of the toilet bowl when she does pause long enough for speech.

Linda hated seeing her friend in such a sickly state. She hated feeling so powerless to do anything but crouch beside her and make sure Maggie didn't get sick on her pretty hair. "I know Mags." She whispers rising just enough to get a washcloth and wet it with mild temperature water despite Maggie's attempt to pull her back down by the sleeve of her jacket. "This will help." She promises as she rests the cloth against the back of her friend's neck.

"Why is it so cold?"

Linda was about to apologize about the water temperature until she noticed the full-body shivering Maggie was making as she curls even closer around the toilet as her stomach lurched again.

"Let's get you warmed up tiger." The super offers looking thought the doorway of the small bathroom into the rest of her dimly light apartment for something to do just that.

_Oh, Rao I really need to go shopping._ The young hero sighed to herself as she continues rubbing slow circles against her friend's back when Maggie once again tries to empty her already vacant stomach into the toilet bowl.

* * *

"I call it….Kara Cam."

Alex rolls her eyes at Winn's overly dramatic tone as she takes the tablet the closest thing to a brother offers

"Ha-ha very funny." Kara's voice answers over the sound of rushing wind in the same unamused tone Alex would have used if she could speak for herself at the moment. "So original." Kara adds as she flies in lower before ducking down into the cover of the closest alleyway to her target.

Alex knew her sister's annoyance was for her own enjoyment. Really this had been Kara's idea as a way to keep her older sister from taking to the streets herself. Linda and Maggie should have been back hours ago and the fact that they were not raised everyone's anxiety levels another notch.

Sure Linda was more than capable of taking care of herself but given Maggie's condition when she'd somehow slipped undetected out of DEO protection and with the looming threat of this new organization wanting to harm them no one liked the idea that something else could so easily go wrong.

"Um, Kar? Lena said the signal was coming from across town, not downtown sweetie." Eliza cuts in leaning over Alex's shoulder to get a look at the video feed from the small camera they'd managed to create in place of the lenses of Kara's glasses.

"I know Mom." Kara answers pulling the collar up on her jacket "I won't be long promise." She adds as she climbs the steps of the apartment building. It was just a hunch. Something that she would do herself in her sister's position that she had to get out of her head before she could get back to the mini recovery mission she was on. True Linda did seem to have a slightly closer relationship with Maggie than she did including her time first warming up to her sister's first-ever girlfriend turned fiancée, but she still felt the pull to protect her just the same.

Maggie didn't deserve to be poked and prodded by any more goons in those too white lab coats even the ones at the DEO who were only doing it to help her. She deserved to be coddled and fussed over while she recovered.

'Maybe' Kara mused walking through the lobby of her younger sister's apartment building her hands fisted in the pockets of her jacket as she headed quickly toward the door for the stairs. Her suspicions were somewhat confirmed when she neared the door at the end of the hall. The tv was on a low volume to human standers but Kara couldn't detect either Maggie or Linda's heartbeats mingling with it as she'd hoped.

As she'd thought the door was unlocked and swung open with just a small flick of her wrist.

It's the change in her heartbeat that signals Alex's disappointment the more Kara moves into the apartment.

The light was still on in the bathroom and Maggie's sweat-dampened shirt and her jacket hung over the shower rod to dry out so they may have just missed them, but Kara doubted it.

If Lin had moved her again it had to be for a very important reason as her eyes once again scan the room for any other clue as to where her younger sister had gone this time.

Kara does pick up a little giggle from her own commlink when her eyes find the dull glow of the still running tv. The Great Mouse Detective was just about over. The final belle just about to strike. An adorable yet really not so surprising choice for a sickly Maggie feel better movie. Alex herself remembering a few times she'd needed to pull up the cartooned mystery on her own tv whilst she snuggled against a shivering and adorably runny-nosed Maggie.

"I'll check again after I head to the bar." Kara says closing the window and turning off the tv. "Thanks Kar." 'Robo Alex' answers as she watches her sister turning off the bathroom light before turning back toward the door. Maggie's jacket cradled over her arm as she takes one last look around before letting the door click closed behind her. This time making sure it was locked before she headed back toward the stairs.

Notes:

pt 2 to be posted this Friday.


	23. Chapter 23

Linda holds in a curse by will alone as she struggles passed the lock on the door as quietly as she can be given the number of loud plastic bags hanging on her arms. Somehow though she manages it as the devil hunk of wood finally eases open.

"Right where I left you." She chuckles as her eyes fall on the softly snoring lump curled up on the bed. The low volume sounds of her sleeping patient's favored 'sick day' movie playing again as the mercifully quieter sounds of the nightlife of National City floats in thought the half-open window.

It had taken a little longer than she'd intended in gathering up everything she'd need for her one-woman attempt to nurse Maggie Sawyer back to decent health. She would prefer perfect but until they figure out _exactly _what those devils did to her that wasn't in the cards. Linda hadn't exactly taken care of anyone who was sick before herself, so she wanted to be prepared and all her googling, while her dude had slept cuddled up against her side, told her she needed to keep Maggie hydrated and fed.

The fact that her friend was fighting much more than a simple run of the mill fever was a worry for when said fever was finally beaten into submission.

Linda felt her earlier smile returning when she remembered the surprise she'd gotten after she'd apparently bought out the little stores complete stock of chicken and stars soup with extra broth. The fact she'd also swiped all the cough drops they had on hand was of little concern if it meant returning Maggie to Alex far better than when she'd at least left the DEO.

Maggie flinches when Linda kicks the door closed behind herself a little harder than she's intended. It would seem the detective hadn't been as knocked out in sleep as the returning super had thought as she sets her raid of the closest all-night convenience store down on the table.

"Sshh. It's alright. I'm right here Mags." She soothes returning to the sickbed when her restless friend hadn't yet settled back into sleep. "I'm right here." She repeats her hand intwining with Maggie's searching one.

"Alex." Maggie mumbles with a sleepy smile as she pulls Linda's hand tight against her chest.

Linda sighs with a rather goofy smile on her lips as she maneuvers as best as she can back up onto the bed. "Always second best huh?" she jokes as Maggie rolls over splaying herself out over a giggling Linda.

Humans were so amusing when they weren't feeling well. So cuddly and clingy it was beyond adorable.

"Alex." Maggie coos finally settling down nuzzling her face against the dip of Linda's shoulder. She was still too hot for Linda's liking but at least the fever seemed to have dropped a few significant degrees since they'd left the bar and then again in their mad (well Linda's mad anyway) rush to find a quieter safe haven when the rumble of the nightlife had become too much for Maggie's pulsing fever-induced headache to take at her other apartment.

"Mags?" Linda murmurs as quietly as she could whilst still being audible to human hearing making the Sawyer version of the Danvers crinkle appear between the dozing detective's brows. "Come on Maggie bear wake up for me." Linda coaxes running a soft hand against Maggie's back.

"No wanna." Maggie whined against her shoulder redoubling her grip on the front of Linda's tank top as if that alone would keep them from moving.

Linda sighs against the crown of Maggie's head "You need to eat."

Maggie shook her head burrowing deeper into the pillow she'd made of the super's collarbone. Again, Linda represses a smile at just how adorable human were when they weren't feeling well or at least her chosen humans.

"They're doing it again Lin."

The listening super stiffness at the news yet her arms never waver from their protective hold as Maggie once again claws her way back to a much more aware mindset. "Bit by bit. They are staling her away from me. The harder I try to hold on the more fragmented she gets." Linda's arms close in as best of a hug as she could give in their current position. "I'm losing her."

"You won't."

Maggie hide her face against Linda's shoulder trying to hide her sobs as best she could "It's already happening." She reminds her voice muffled as she lets more tears fall.

"yubikiri genman, uso tsuitara I won't let that happen." The honest determination behind the vow shakes the shivering detective to the core as her eyes find the warm yet hardened icy blue of the supers. A stack of journal like notebooks and a brand-new pack of pens and another of pencils sit ready for use on the small kitchen table when Maggie finds the strength to peek at what Linda was talking about.

"Stealing from _the Notebook_ are we baby Danvers?" Maggie asks her throat scratchy and dry as she gratefully accepts one of the ice chips Linda offers as they pair untangle from one another.

"The what?" Linda asks honestly puzzled offering a steady arm when Maggie stumbles.

Instead of answering Maggie only rests her head against Linda's shoulder. "'m hungry." Linda nodes feeling Maggie's arms tightening around her waist almost as if she feared if she didn't hold on tight enough that Linda would disappear.

"You eat I'll write for you until you feel up to doing it yourself," She offers making quick work of dishing out and heating up some soup for the both of them once the pair settled at the table. Linda on one side closest to the door and really the only way into and out of the apartment just in case Maggie once again thought someone would come after them.

Maggie curled up on the other side her eyes flickering between her soup bowl, the door, and Linda's concerned expression whilst her fingers therapeutically skimmed back and forth over the sleek deadly weapon resting beside Maggie's slightly steaming supper. Just an added level of calm for Maggie considering feverish or not she knew that Linda Danvers was more than capable of keeping her safe. "No, use the blue. Alex likes blue best." The detective says around another mouthful of broth heavy soup. True she was talking louder than she may have if she wasn't shivering and still fighting off the last of her fever, but it was important.

Blue was an important color to her Alex, so it was going to be just as important for Maggie.

Across from her Linda only smiled guiltily but was pleased Maggie was finally able to remember one of the smaller details about her older sister as she quietly set aside the red colored pen she had pulled out of the pack and instead slid out one of the blue inked ones.

"So, what do we start with first in the grand story of you and Alex?" she asked genially curious as to what Maggie remembered or at least what she was willing to share in regard to her relationship with Linda's treasured older sister.

* * *

Kara sighs trying to keep her annoyance in check as she ducked yet another wildly thrown haymaker as the drunken man tries yet again to get close enough to land a hit as the rest of the bar seems to close the two in a human ring all drunkenly chanting 'Fight'.

Why the bartender hadn't stepped in yet was a question that was really getting on her nerves as Kara straightened her glasses as her would-be attacker angrily grabs a beer from someone in the ring with a jeered "I'm coming for you blondie." and drains it down.

"How the hell should I know?" she asks at the currently computerized version of her sister's voice asks again what she did to warrant such a welcoming reception once she'd managed to make her way to an open spot at the packed bar to ask about her other sister or Maggie.

"Twice in one day. Girls remind me to have a little talk with Lin when we find her." Eliza sighs pressing a light kiss against Alex's head having spent most of the day in the lab with Jamie analyzing the samples they'd taken from Maggie's 'torture tank' as Jamie called it. "What? Although I will admit her first brawl was more than appropriate given _why _she stepped in a bar fight isn't a way to end a visit no matter what the movies say." The mother backpaddles at Alex's and Alura's amused expressions while Lena giggles from behind her computer.

"Then steer clear of any of the Gotham haunts." Kate comments earning an almost laughter worthy bark from Rory who was playing guard at the end of Alex's bed. "Trust me. It's not considered a good night unless the place has seen three or more fights." The police captain sighs when all eyes turn toward her as she puts up a halfhearted attempt to shield herself from Rory's eager greeting as she attacks Kate's face in greeting kisses.

She was about to ask if there was anything new when Vasquez rushes into the room with a rather giddy spring in her step. Its Kate who speaks first. "Either you've had a hit of some seriously juiced up coffee or you've somehow got a lead." She guesses.

'Or Luc stopped by for a.' Alex started to type but Susan quickly 'shuts her up' as best she could given that not even Alex could type as fast as Winn. "I don't know what you're implying about Lucy and me Miss 'badass agent that breaks protocell left and right just to see a certain cop smile' but in answer to your lead question Kate yes we do have something." Vaz teases as her arms cross tight over her chest.

Alex chucks one of the smaller of her extra pillows at her friend with a raspy blushing laugh when Susan grins as she sidesteps and flips her sister of a boss off only to falter a little under the dual unamused looks she got from the DEO den mothers.

"Sorry Moms."

It's Alura that breaks first this time pulling a still blushing Vaz in for a one-armed hug just as Jeremiah and J'onn joined them both looking hopeful. "Did you hear? They have a possible actual triangulated location for her...them. You know who I mean."

Alex huffs snapping her finger to get some means of attention seeing as Kara had unhelpfully taken off her glasses in order to call up her super suite hopefully heading toward wherever it was, they'd found out Linda was jealously guarding _Alex's Maggie _but Kara speaks first before Alex can get her thought in enough of an order to start typing out what she wanted to say. "ETA right now three minutes," she promises and just from the change in her breathing Alex can tell she was taking a few of the turns a bit too quickly in her hast to shorten that time. "I swear Ally next you see me I'll have your girl and our sister with me. yubikiri genman, uso tsuitara." Her little sister adds confirming Alex hunch before the rush of wind becomes too much for her com to take as it cuts out.


	24. Chapter 24

"I know, I know I should have knocked first but I heard how upset you were and I just….." Kara stammers her hands in the air but slowly picks her way past the splintered remains of the door so she could at least be out of the hallway while being held at alien powered gunpoint. Lucky for them Lex had good taste in picking hideouts. So, they wouldn't need to deal with complaints about Kara's missile-like attack on the front door but that didn't mean someone might not come out just to see what had caused such a commotion so late at night.

"Maggie?" the same voice calls a half-second later. The concern surrounding her name makes the detective's heartache as the tell-tale whoosh of air signals her other protector's arrival.

"Kara!"

Where she not being held at gunpoint Kara would have laughed at seeing essentially herself in such a disheveled state. It really, she was still getting used to being able to see herself from everyone else's perspective. It doesn't look like her twin had even started to wash out the shampoo from her hair and her hastily thrown on clothes were clinging to her wet skin like plastic wrap.

Maggie only redoubled her grip on her borrowed weapon aiming higher right in the center of the 'S' shaped crest when the intruder cleared the doorway. She knew that crest. And that name. "Kara" she thinks Lin said. That triggered a need to protect somewhere deep in Maggie's fractured mind. But protect who? Linda while looking adorable in her disheveled state was more than capable of looking after herself, she didn't need Maggie for that.

Maggie shakes her head her eyes going back on the intruder. She was sure she'd seen that red and yellow symbol emblazoned across the blonde's chest a time or two when she was happy with Alex before everything went wrong. But why had it all gone wrong? Was is because of this crest? Because of this 'Kara' person she was meant to protect?

This crest meant family to someone. But Alex was her family and her Alex wasn't here.

Maggie misses Alex so much it physically hurts. Her heart hurts like it's been ripped away from her and if her head would just stop hurting, she could remember why both the crest and that 'Kara' name were so important to the most important woman in Maggie's life. _'Sorry Rory baby but Alex did get here first.'_ She giggles to herself only to bring another round of pain in her chest and making the pain in her head flare up worse than before.

Rory was back in Gotham. Safe from the lab-coated doctors that twisted and morphed Maggie's mind like wet clay but that meant her little ray of sunshine was also away from the other source of light in Maggie's life. The two most important women to her and they will never be able to meet.

"D…D—Don't move." Maggie orders trying to hide the shake in her hands as she blinks away the tears from her eyes.

Her head was on fire half screaming to put the gun down while the other was shouting just as loudly for her to pull the trigger.

"I'm a statue." Kara promises hands still raised

"Drop them. To your sides." Maggie orders her voice a lot stronger than before as she gives in to the more docile part of her dueling thoughts.

She didn't want to hurt the blonde in blue, not yet anyway. Not until she turns on them like all aliens do in time.

Yet blue was her Alex's favorite color so an alien in a blue suit couldn't be all bad, could she?

That also looked like what she kind of remembered her Alex's sister looked like. But what was her name?

But no hang on, Alex's sister was already with her. Little Danvers has been the one working so hard in nursing a broken Maggie back to health it didn't make sense to her why this alien was wearing a friendly face when clearly Linda Danvers was standing in the same room as them.

Linda was Alex's only sister. Wasn't she?

Kara slowly lowers her arms even for human standers.

"Mags."

The trembling detective shakes her head "I said don't move alien." Maggie barks when Kara unthinkingly starts taking a step towards her twin who looks ready to collapse in worry as her eyes dart between the gun-wielding fragile minded detective and her sister.

"Maggie look at me." Linda begs again her voice quivering as she tries to hold back actual tears.

Maggie does but only for a few seconds before her eyes slide back to Kara just to check that she hadn't moved. "Supergirl isn't here to hurt us." Linda promises. The level of the gun drops a little.

Supergirl?

The name triggers another deeper buried fragment a ghost of a talk with the woman who so completely stole the detective's heart.

"Because Supergirl's your sister….."

Linda's hand flashes out catching the falling weapon before it could hit the ground or accidentally go off while Kara gathers a sobbing Maggie in her arms.

"Kara. Oh Rao Kara. Kara I'm so sorry….I."

Kara's steely strong arms fold around her cradling her while Maggie clings to the front of her suit. "It's alright Mags." She soothes pressing her cheek into Maggie's hair as she cries. "I know the pants do take some getting used to. It's alright." The super tries to play off bringing a wet hit of a coughed laugh from the head nestled against her shoulder.

"Still warm." Maggie hears Kara diagnose as she lets herself be led over to the couch whilst the other tell-tale whoosh suggests Linda it taking care of the splintered door.

"Da but the fever has been dropping." The sisters discuss as Kara tucks her cape around Maggie's shoulders as the detective curls up with her head resting on Kara's leg. "This is kind of impressive," Maggie adds her fingers just brushing over the blue material under her head.

"Yeah. Got an upgrade of sorts in the suite department since we saw each other last." Kara agrees with her fingers threading in Maggie's hair.

"Nice." Maggie yawned leaning into the touch. Alex would do that after long days. Just the two of them snuggled on the couch watching some doctor show that Alex would always grumble at while she played with Maggie's hair when they'd get something wrong.

"Just rest Maggie." Linda murmurs nodding Kara over toward the table as Maggie gives a sleepy "m'kay."

Kara shakes her head "Go finish your shower. I'll hold the fort."

Linda gives a puzzled look, but Kara shakes her head shooing her twin back toward the bathroom.


	25. Shot to the Heart Pt 1

Kara breathes a sigh of relief watching some of the tension drains away from the shorter of the leather jacket clade shoulders the second the trio had stepped across the threshold.

"See told you I knew where I was going." Maggie bragged a happy skip in her step as they were waved past the security desk with nothing more than a glance and a soft "Been wondering when you'd come back." from the board looking alien sitting behind it with her legs propped up against the wooden surface as she flipped to another page of her magazine.

Linda, of course, was on high alert after catching the not so muffled sounds of gunfire, but Maggie's hand in hers seems to calm her as Kara trails behind them her hands sliding into the pockets of her jeans.

"Just trust me, please. I promise you'll have fun here." Linda raised an eyebrow while Kara muffled a giggle at being able to see an exact copy of her disbelieving expression as Maggie hurries on as they are buzzed past a rather intimidating looking door.

"Okay yes my mind maybe swiss cheese right now thanks to those Cadmus docs," both supers flinch at the reminder and going by the sharp intake of breath fluttering in Kara's ear so did Alex. "But just think of this as a road test."

"A road test?"

Maggie let out a sigh of amusement when the twins spoke at the same time as she leads the way toward the room she needed. So cute how in sync they were.

"Thanks to that rather forced trip down memory lane I remembered how much I wanted to bring Alex here for a date night, but I never thought it would be good enough and then everything got turned upside down with the Daxm thing and the proposal I just forgot about it." Maggie explains with a shrug and a bitter yet guilty note in her voice as she lets the door swing open.

"Its…." Kara starts to say as more of the automatic lights click on at the motion of their entrance, but the words cut off as she looks around and Alex wasn't much help as more lights clicked themselves on the farther Maggie and Linda got into the room.

"I know indoor paintball. Cool right?" Maggie laughed throwing her hair up into a loose ponytail as she lets go of Linda's hand once they reach the weapons wall.

"Paintball?"

Kara nodes letting out a little chuckle at the string of happy and jealous-faced emojis Alex was sending to her. "It's like a chess game strategy-wise just with special kinds of firearms and protective gear." She tries to explain to her youngest sister while reading all of Alex's jealousy filled texts crawling across the inside of her glasses while they all gear up.

* * *

The detective soon had them both pinned down clearly taking advantage of the twins idea to team up against her to make the game more interesting.

"So, L."

Linda perks up but going by the look on her face Kara guesses she already knew what topic Maggie was about to bring up as they dodge around the back of an inflated target to avoid the electric blue paint pelts Maggie aimed at them.

"I said I don't want to talk about it." That had Kara interested as Linda gives some nice retaliation fire of her own splattering Maggie's hiding place in a hale of red-colored pellets.

There was annoyance in her sister's voice but also a dusting of a blush in her cheeks as Linda's avoids Maggie's eyes. "Head in the game Supergirl." Linda advises over her shoulder smoothly snapping a fresh clip into her chosen weapon.

"Come on Snowy. This is your first love." Maggie sighs from across the 'battlefield' with a puppy-like pout as she reloaded her own weapon. "it's a big deal that needs to be talked about."

Kara rather comically stumbled over nothing in her surprise over what the new topic of discussion had turned to.

"You okay over there little Danvers?" the detective asks genially concerned

"Oh yeap. All good." Kara nods a little hot under the collar herself as she listens and more to the point that Alex and whoever was in Alex's room at the DEO was listening to everything being said.

_Please don't let Lena be listening in._

After a little more light pressing from Maggie as the three trade 'blaster fire' Linda gives in enough to shake her head with a sad look that has Kara feeling like she'd been punched in the heart herself just witnessing the heartbreaking look. "There is nothing more to tell." She says just loud enough for Maggie to catch. "He doesn't like me like Alex likes you or how Kara likes Lena."

_'Wait…. he?'_

Going by the look Maggie sent her over the top of her newest hiding place at her louder than she'd thought intake of breath at the description the detective could tell what was going on inside Kara's head.

"Oh, come on little Danvers don't look so surprised. You two were bound to differ on something things sooner or later." Maggie jokes only a little out of breath when she speaks momentarily letting Linda off the hook as she rounds on Kara instead. "Besides unlike with you we don't seem to have a spare tall emerald-eyed, Irish accented super-genius with flawless skin and some serious unresolved trust and family issues laying around."

Kara's heart was throwing itself against her ribs by this point. "I don't know what you're talking about." She lies.

"Sure. Just like Alex didn't realize at first that she liked the ladies too." Maggie tosses back before her eyes slide back to the other twin speaking out from the other side of their hiding place; she'd gotten to know fairly well the last few days as she nursed her back into a more loosed mindset. "Look I know you've said he's been spending a lot of time with Jamie J recently but that doesn't mean you don't have a shot."

Maggie didn't need to have x-ray vision to know that Linda's shoulders had dropped in defeat at her words it was clear enough in her voice when she finally answers. "It is like I've said already, Maggie Sawyer. You didn't see the way he looks at her, how he laughs with her, he isn't like that with me. He is more careful and guarded with me than he is with her as if he thinks I'm more breakable than his human friend."

Again, Kara's mind stalls at the information as Linda stands firing off a few more shots getting Maggie to combat roll to a different vantage point.

Even she'd noticed how much Linda had seemed to stay in a room longer if Winn was in it. How the two would trade little glances and small shy smiles between them while everyone else would be going up the wall in worry over Maggie.

Kate had even started a pool for how long it would take for them to step up and tell the other how they felt. "I mean come on its so blindingly obvious they can't not know how the other feels. Exhibit A for instance." Kara remembers Jamie say with a happy smile one night after Linda and Winn had finally given in to their need for sleep that had ended with them snuggling together on the pull out bed in the corner of the conference room.

The resulting picture Eliza had taken of the sleeping couple becoming the centerpiece of the 'betting wall' Kate had set up in one of the smaller meeting rooms to track the pool's progress in the following days.

"But Winn and I already decided to just be friends."

"Exactly." Linda answers angry tears in her eyes as she spins around to face her wide-eyed 'older sister' "_You_ and Winn decided to just be friends. But I am not you Kara Danvers.".

It was just by chance that Kara caught the sharp gasp from the hidden transmitter tucked over her ear. Kara pals a little when she realizes who it was.

Winn was listening in.

She feels a little guilty as she lets her mind drift straining her ears to catch every line of the broken argument Alex and their 'little brother' were now having back at the DEO. It takes a little longer considering Alex had to keep typing out her words rather than answer for herself.

By the sounds of it, Alex was trying to keep Winn from going to the range himself reminding him over and over again that neither Linda nor Maggie knew Kara was secretly transmitting everything they said and did back to the DEO regardless of the fact that Alex had the only access to said surveillance feed.

"She's already hurt about how you haven't made a move do you really want to add being a privacy breaker to the list of reasons she doesn't trust you?" her older sister was asking in that creepy robotic version of her current voice.

Kara wants to slide her glasses off like Alex was suggesting but the hurt in Winn's voice as he pleads for Alex to turn the volume back up on the tablet was so heartbreaking, she didn't have the heart to follow up on the act.

"-so, what chance do I possibly have with him when all he sees when he looks at me is how much you've hurt him?" Linda was yelling when Kara came back into the conversation.

Maggie now sitting on the floor letting Linda cry into the front of her shirt while she whispers over and over how sorry she was for bringing it up in the first place as she brushing her fingers in Linda's hair.

Kara dropped to her knees in front of them swiping off her glasses letting them drop upside down onto the floor at her side all the while ignoring Maggie's motherly level glare for her to back the hell off. "Lin…" her own tears were sliding down her cheeks as she struggled over what to say.

How to fix this.

She was coming up empty. Something she had been doing a lot lately whilst Linda continued softly sobbing into the collar of Maggie's shirt.

_'And now I'm falling for ya, falling for ya_  
_I know I shouldn't but I_  
_I just can't stop myself from_  
_Falling for ya_

The only thing that comes to mind was "Really _Teen Beach_?" but Kara holds her tongue when she realizes who must be calling for that song to be playing while Linda fishes the phone out of her pocket.

_Falling for ya_  
_Can't hold on any longer_  
_And now I'm falling for you_

"Answer it silly." Maggie encourages but Linda shakes her head her tears forgotten but her hands trembling as she watches his name flashes across the screen. "it's going to kick him to voicemail soon just answer it you goof." Maggie tries again but for a second time, Linda shakes her head cradling the still ringing phone against her chest a soft smile pulls at her lips when the song starts playing over again.

She frowns when it stops almost as quickly as it had started.

"Better?" Maggie asks hopefully while Linda carefully hands Kara back her glasses.

"A little." Linda nodes swiping at the last of her tears with the back of her hand as she slides her phone back into her pocket.

"Would some Oreos help?" Kara suggests already picking up on Winn and Alex's cute brother-sister type of fight for when she can get Linda and Maggie back to the DEO.

"They always help." Her sister reminds letting Kara pull her to her feet than in for a tight guilty feeling hug as Maggie jogs toward the door with a called "wait here I think they have the mini ones in the vending machine down the hall."

That has the Danvers twins chasing after her hand in hand at what to them at least was a normal human stride.

* * *

Notes:

Everyone alright?

I promise Sanvers will meet again in the next chapter.  
And to prove it here's a little sneak peek:

Five little words.  
Alex felt her life completely change in the form of five simple tiny words falling from the lips of the woman she was in the middle of falling in love with all over again.


	26. Chapter 26

"No, nu-un those two are out." Kate decided pointing at the board with the end of her dry erase marker toward two options in turn after some thought before crossing them off herself.

"What? Why those are classics for a reason." The only other man in a room of intimidating women gaped around the few pieces of popcorn he'd tossed into his mouth. Brainy having stepped out a while ago to help with something or other down in one of the labs while Winn kept his head down continuing to scribble away at his note pad trying to find just the right combination of words but as of yet he kept coming up short.

"If this was for a date with Kara yes." Eliza reminds them with a soft smile "We don't really know what Linda's balance would be on a bike or roller skates." She sighs looking over the dwindling list of ideas, they'd managed to come up with since this little meeting had been called.

"And a game night isn't that special considering you 'super friends' have one every week or every other week if what Mags said was true." Kate reminds taking a sip from her now lukewarm coffee as she tapped the end of her marker against the tabletop in thought.

"Karaoke isn't ruled out yet." Lena reminds with a smile after swallowing another bite of the burger Alura had sat in front of her with a motherly look on her face after Eliza had gently but firmly dragged her out of the lab to help them. "and even if she doesn't want to sing with you, you could always bring down the house all on your own Schott." The CEO praised making Winn gape a little at the compliment.

"Hey speaking of…. if she really does share some of Kara's memories….."

"There's doubt?" Lena laughed while Eliza slid what was left of her fries toward her with a shrug and a smile after noticing how quickly the CEO had finished her own off.

Barry rolled his eyes continuing his question as if he hadn't been interrupted as he tossed a few more prices of popcorn into the air at lightning speed. "would that mean that she remembers that time Kara and I got whammed by 'red pocket-handkerchief' guy into that musical world?" leaning back just in time to catch the falling snack in his open mouth.

Winn groaned fighting the want to lob one of the crumpled bits of paper at his friend's head. Why he wanted to do so he didn't really know but in the moment is just felt like something fun to take his mind off his dilemma. Instead he rubs his hands over his face fighting a yawn. He'll need to shave soon. He can feel the scrape of stubble against his palms.

"Bathroom break." He lies when he feels all eyes draw to him while he pushes away from the table.

He knew she would follow him after a little while anyway but he makes a point to catch her eye just in case waiting for the almost imperceptible node she gives in answer while her eyes stay trained on the front of the room where an amusing argument had broken out between the Luthor and the Bat.

"What the hell is wrong with the planetarium Luthor? We're talking about a girl that literally fell from the sky how in the hell is it unromantic to show her a few of the stars she fell passed on her way here?"

He needed to think. To be as alone with his thoughts as he could get while wandering around a government agency that included a literal mind reader within its innermost circle.

He makes it as far as the catwalk over the hub before he forces himself to stop.

Why was this so hard?

After all it was just coming up with finding some kind of an opening to get the woman, he was slowly but definitely falling for alone long enough for him to admit how he feels about her all the while knowing exactly how much she was already feeling for him considering how he'd accidentally walked into a room just in time to catch her confession earlier in the day. And with just how many parenteral figures and family members Lin had in the vicinity he was sure that the second he said something wrong he'd be bullet-ridden, beaten to a pulp then hurled into space if not the sun itself before he could take his next breath.

No pressure whatsoever.

This may be his one and only shot with Linda. He wanted to go into it for the right reasons. After everything, she's been put through in her short 'life' she deserves the world and Winn sure has Rao was going to do his best to give it to her.

"If you're trying to hide from the den moms try a less 'out in the open' hiding place than the heart of the building." A joking tone says as the body it belongs to drops down to sit beside him on the overhead walkway.

Winn lets out a slow breath leaning over to rest his head against her shoulder. It was so natural this brother-sister like bond they've forged in the short time they've been in the other's company.

Jamie lets her arm slid around his shoulders her hand finding his hair. Winn had yet to figure out her fascination with his hair but right now he didn't care enough to come out and ask.

"How can I risk hurting her when what I feel could just be the lingering feelings, I had for Kara projected onto her."

"I can tell it's not like that." Jamie countered "You care for Kara; anyone can see that but when you're with Linda…."

Winn felt a smile tugging at his lips just from hearing her name.

"See that proves my point. That right there." Jamie breaks off but Winn shakes his head his smile wavering.

However, the argument stalled a second time when another body lowers itself down on Winn's other side with a tired huff. Her head finding a pillow on Winn's shoulder with a soft greeting hum.

"Hammyton got rough today huh?" Jamie asks sliding the half-full water bottle she'd bought with her over enough for Alex to reach without much effort. She didn't need to look to know the other two rolled their eyes at her not so creative nickname for a favored DEO doctor. "What? I don't like doctors no matter how cute they are." She leaned forward enough to catch Alex's eye sending her a flirtatious wink. Alex grins in return but fishes the chain around her neck out with a smirk of her own.

Jamie lets out a dreamy sigh at the sight. "Just cause your taken doesn't mean I can't still think your cute….. even if you are a doctor."

"Brat." Alex rasped out her voice like she'd swallowed molten rock as she forced the single word out as her head dropped for a second time against Winn's shoulder.

The bruises were healing her stitches fading little by little and she was steadily regaining her voice but everyone who knew her knew that Alex was pushing herself harder than needed in the few days since the bar brawl in order to write herself out of the med bay so she could go reunite with the woman she loved and also her sisters.

To be honest everyone in the building was amazed she hadn't tried to sneak out already.

"What's with the shirt? You changing teams on us Lexie?" Winn jokes noticing the distinctly bat-like shape splashed across Alex's front her he turned him head to nuzzle his face against the crown of Alex's head.

Alex gave his arm a playful smack as her other hand smoothed out the wrinkles in her borrowed shirt. Another of Maggie's. "When….you ask….baby sister….out?" she asks instead.

Winn hadn't intended his sigh to sound so defeated as he let his head fall back against the glass lining behind them. "Right that's all she needs after this madhouse of a week is me cornering her as soon as she gets back and going 'Hey Lin how about dropping everything and going on a date with when I have absolutely no idea what we'd be doing?"

Alex nodes with a pleased half-smile on her lips.

"See you already have your opener and then Mags and Al can double. Oooo maybe we could get Lee to woman up and ask out the other hot super that's been strutting around here so it can be a tripe date night." Jamie suggests. "What?" she stalls seeing Alex's amused expression half hidden as it was by Winn's shoulder.

"I would love to tag along but sadly my plus one for a date night is back in Gotham, and I don't want to steal one here. No matter how tempting they are." The lab assistant sighed her eyes falling back toward the hub below them lingering on the straight-backed agent currently standing with her back to them monitoring something on one of the computer screens hanging on the wall.

"You've never told us that before." Winn counters.

"I have too." Jamie argues with a guilty sounding sigh. "Rory and I talk about it all the time. Not my fault if no one listens in on our late-night girl talk."

As if summoned the pup in question came bounding toward them at full speed with a triumphant sounding bark and a visible spring in her fast steps.

"So, this is where you've been hiding?"

Jamie was the first to speak up after the newcomer was settled in across from them flashing his own boyish smile as he watched Winn and Alex get an equal bathing in dog slobbered kisses. "You know what they say about hiding in plain sight."

Barry gave an agreeing node. "True."

"Didn't those results you wanted come in already?"

The speedster nodes "but I've already sent them off so now I'm just here for moral support." He shrugs opening the lid on one of the five box stack of pizzas he'd brought with him and offering it to the other three.

"Aaww bromance alert." Jamie coos taking a slice with a giggle while Winn rolled his eyes also grabbing a slice leaving a frustrated looking Alex to handle keeping Rory from tearing into the pie herself.

"Oh…right….hang on a sec."

Barry was gone in a blur of speed and lightning before any of them could ask what he was talking about.

"I hope you like pepperoni starlight." He coos popping the top on a smaller pizza box. This one bosting that it was dog-friendly as he sets it down in front of the struggling dog.

Astonishing to everyone present was how Rory didn't seem the least bit interested in the offering as her nose lifted pulling in a deeper breath as her head tilted as if listening to something the others couldn't catch.

Alex was the first to put the pieces together having seen at least part of that gesture from her sisters a time or twelve as Rory takes off toward the closest set of stairs. Alex hot as her heels or at least going as fast as her still-healing body will allow.

"Aawww the siren call of true love." Jamie sighed folding her next slice of pizza into a taco before taking a bite. "Or in this case the ding of an elevator carrying already mentioned true love." She corrected while she chews as she pulls herself up to lean against the railing in anticipation.

"Holy wonder twins." Barry gaped when the doors to the elevator pinged open allowing not one but two Karas to pass between the elevator doors to immediately be swept into the arms of their worried mothers. Kara by Eliza, while the one he assumes was Linda, was pulled into a tight looking hug by Alura.

"I know right." Jamie agrees nudging her shoulder with the speedsters. "Too bad they are already taken." She sighs sending Winn a playful wink.

"What no hug for the human? Okay, I see how it is." Maggie pouts earning popcorned laughs from not only the watching trio on the overhead catwalk but also from the growing ring around the elevators as the cute 'tiger' of a detective was lost in a hug between J'onn and Eliza while Alura hung back unsure despite Kara and Linda's encouraging node.

"Here she comes." Winn smiles as he like everyone else in the hub picked up on the hurried steps on the polished tiled floor. "About dam time." Jamie grumbles already fighting tears as she adjusts the focus on her phone so she wouldn't miss a single second of the upcoming reunion.

Thankfully Maggie seemed to catch on at the last second when her chosen parents stepped away letting the tiny one between then drop to her knees letting out only the softest of complaining grunts when she was finally hit with the full impact of her charging welcoming committee.

Shaking arms wrapped around one another as tight as they could on both cases while each sobbed into the others shoulder for the first few seconds.

"God, I wish I had super hearing." Winn lamented his eyes shining in unshed tears as he watched Maggie curl even closer around Rory's happy vibrating form they could tell Maggie was whispering something to her while the dog tried yet again to bathe her owner in welcoming/ I missed you kisses but none could make out just what that something was not even Jamie who was documenting everything.

"Me too man." Barry agreed already whipping a few tears of his own away the longer they listened to Rory's excited barks as she circles tightly around her giggling owner while Maggie continues murmuring to her in tearful broken Spanish.

"Sunbeam. My little sunbeam."

Everyone except Winn started at the sniffed translation as a fourth watcher squeezed in between the boys. Her head coming to rest against Barry's shoulder rather than Winn's as her watery blue eyes stayed trained on, the reunion below.

"I missed you. I missed you so much." She sniffed hiding her face against the speedster's shoulder as another wave of happy tears spilled from her eyes. The warmth and love behind the words. It was so beautiful while Maggie nuzzled her face against the squirming pup's scruff.

Jamie paused for a half-second turning the still running video toward the other three with her when the boys moved at the same time to offer the crying blonde comfort.

"Kara…."

"Linda…."

"Alex." The blonde now tucked into Barry's arms murmurs bringing everyone back to what was happening in the hub below them.

"What the hell." Jamie gaped almost dropping her phone in her attempt to refocus on the couple now locked in what had to be the tightest given hug of the day. Maggie standing as still as stone while Alex clings to her like a drowning woman lost at sea.

"Thanks for the warning Allen now I probably missed all the hot 'I missed you' tongue action."


	27. Chapter 27

She wakes up slower the next morning.

How could she not with the warm weight of the woman she loved spooned up behind her. Almost completely naked she was pleased to say with those skilled fingers she'd missed so much drawing lazy patterns along the naked flesh of her hip while Maggie snuggles back into that familiar and comforting embrace.

"Alex." She hums without opening her eyes.

"Maggie." Was the smiled replay into the back of the waking detective's neck. Humm how she missed the way that voice said her name especially this early in the morning, so it still had that sleepy husk of an undertone. "I was almost thinking you'd never come back to me."

Maggie giggles while Alex's lips roamed over the flushed skin of her shoulders from behind. "Ride or Die remember?" she reminds her own hands trailing up and down the arm her love had resting protectively over her stomach. Keeping her close. Keeping her safe. "Ride or Die." Alex echoed her warm breath tickling Maggie's ear as she spoke.

She wanted to turn around. To look at the woman behind her properly but Alex's hold was just too tight holding her hostage while at the same time reminding her that she was protected. Loved.

"Look, Alex….I have to ask you something."

The answering "I'm listening." Against the back of her neck has heat pooling thick and fast and dangerously low in Maggie's belly. Not that it should considering that Alex was with Kelly now not her, but she couldn't help it. This was Alex.

"About….. well about us."

"Us," Alex repeats her breath warm against the back of Maggie's neck as the solid weight of her arms curled even tighter around the detective's middle drawing her back into the waking agent's embrace. "You and me." Maggie nodes before her mind can become too muddled from her close proximity to a barely clothed Alex Danvers.

"Still listening," Alex promises her chin hooking over Maggie's shoulder as the fingers of the arm Alex has slung over her middle lace with her own so the pair could hold hands while they talk.

After a nerve calming breath Maggie starts in. "I will understand if you say no considering Kelly…."

Alex laughs at that making Maggie pause to listen. How she's missed that first thing in the morning breath of a laugh as the body it's coming from vibrates against her back from the motion of it. "Mags come on, given what happened last night and that fact that I'm currently half-naked and quiet contently snuggled up in bed with you. Surly you can use those sexy as hell detecting skills to know that Kelly and I are over."

Again, Maggie tries to turn around needing to see her face before she allowed herself even the slightest possibility to begin to hope. Alex seemed to have other ideas and the instant Maggie started to move so did she. No matter what way Maggie tried to move Alex was always ready to counter. "Just give up Mags it will be a lot easier." Alex teases.

Maggie's body betrays her instantly relaxing and shuddering against the body aligned once again along every curve of her own from behind as the suggestion was kissed into the curve of her shoulder. Dammit, she forgot how much she used to hate when Alex used her weak spots against her like this.

"Come on baby don't pout." Alex pleads and just hearing the sulk in her voice has Maggie's heart aching in her chest as her hand reaches back to thread in Alex's hair while her lips press against the dip of Maggie's shoulder before she speaks, "Just for right now let me be protector spoon to your baby spoon."

Her hand in Alex's hair tightens holding her in place a few seconds more and yet she can't seem to bring herself to continue her original goal of asking for another chance. She can't stand it if Alex grants her wish only to come to regret it later. After all she'd already given her one only to end up being replaced with the idea of Alex wanting to be a mother. No way could she take that pain a second time. So instead she goes for another rout.

"You still have this?" she didn't need to look to know that adorable crinkle was making an appearance on her brow, so Maggie kept talking. Trying to explain the change in her tactic as her fingers continue playing with the slivery blue band sitting proudly around that important finger connected to the hand slung around her middle. "I mean I know I left them with you when we ended things, but I'd have thought you'd you know get rid of them at some point."

Seeing the ring back on Alex's finger the sight alone was enough to almost trick Maggie into believing that all this. Checkmate kidnapping her to use as their lab rat. Her and Alex's final engagement ending break up. All that time being apart from the woman she loved would end up being some horrible nightmare.

The head nestled against her shoulder shakes in denial "I could never Maggie." Alex says as her hands slide into Maggie's hair. What Alex's fascination with her hair was a mystery that Maggie had yet to solve. It was just something cute that was so Alex it hurt. "I have yours with me too. All the time." She smiles hugging herself closer along the smaller woman's back bringing the soft slide of metal against metal to her ears. A necklace maybe.

But since when does Alex where jewelry to bed?

"It's my good luck charm. My strength."

Again, Maggie tries to roll onto her other side so they could face one another and again Alex stops her continuing to play her protector as they lay spooned together under the covers. "You don't need some worthless trinket to make you strong Danvers."

After all wasn't, she the one always saying that not all heroes had to have capes?

That earned a hard scratch of short nails scraping over her stomach just under her bellybutton making Maggie moan a little as Alex tugs her back even closer into the half-circle of her arms her mouth hot against Maggie's ear when she talks. "Nothing that holds memories of us should ever be put into the same breath as worthless Margaret Sawyer."

Humm regardless of how scrambled her mind was Maggie knows she will never be able to forget how much of a turn on Alex's voice was when she talked in 'agent mode' or in this case she guesses it was more 'Director mode'. Especially when those growled comforting words are being kissed into her hair, down the curve of her ear, over the side of her jaw as Alex finally allows Maggie to move as her lips continue their trip toward her own

Yeap getting to wake up in Alex Danvers's arms definitely was the best thing ever apart from meeting her in the first place and getting to fall even more in love with her.

That is until Maggie's eyes open once Alex's strong arms tug her so she could straddle her waist while Alex once again nuzzles her forehead against her own.

Empty.

Alex's face was completely empty. No distinct features at all. Not her eyes, her mouth, her nose, the style or color of her hair. Nothing. Hell, Maggie couldn't even remember now if Alex's ears were pierced and considering the blank-slate version of Alex she was now looking at didn't even have ears for her to tell or not.

"Morning Mags." The mouthless, faceless shell of Alex purrs a smile Maggie can no longer see in her tone as her nimble fingers twist into her hair.

* * *

Linda is at her door a full half of a second later after Maggie's fearful scream hits the air as she sits up in the tangled mess of the blanket with Aroura cautiously crawling up the bed into her lap to start licking away her tears only for more to follow in their place as Maggie curls around her sobbing into her scruff.

She'd been so hopeful as she closed her eyes bathed in at least the intoxicating mix of gunpowder and a beachside breeze both blended with the warm vanilla and fruity scent of her ex's new shampoo choice foolishly thinking that the scent alone would be enough to chase away her worries yet what other choice did she have when the lady herself was still worryingly absent for her homecoming?

Linda rocks them back and forth in a slow rhythm while she soothes Maggie's wild nightmare tangled hair down leaving little brushes of her lips against Maggie's hairline.

Kara and Katie stand shoulder to shoulder at the end of the bed both of them on alert as the rest of her little blend of a chosen family crowed into the doorway now including the Flash himself sporting disheveled pjs and bed tousled hair along with the cute DEO agent Rory had tugged over to her by her pant leg earlier in the day only for said cute agent to end up collapsing into an adorable crying mess in Maggie's arms peeking in around him to check on her.

"They finally did it." The cop in her arms rasped hiding her face against Linda's strong frame so her words were harder to understand "They finally…" she chocks off unable to say the words a second time much less think them. Either of those things will make the meaning behind them all the more real. More permanent.

"Oh, Maggie." It catches her off guard a little when Alura rather than Eliza or Kara takes up a position on Maggie's other side her hand against the shaking woman's back until Maggie turns throwing her arms around the Kryptonian mother's neck when a new wave of tears and sobs rack her small frame.

"Kara. Her journal. Please." Linda's heavily accented voice was just barely audible over the sound of Maggie's sobs.

The cute DEO agent was the closest to the safe Lin had stored her backpack. The one that holds her journals.

As cheesy and teenaged as that sounded, in the beginning, the small notebook collection the pack held had quickly become an outlet for not only to release her anger and confusion over what was currently happening in her life but also a physical reminder on anything and everything she could pull from her broken mind on the woman she loved.

Page after page of sappy little love notes, memories, feelings. Something that Maggie was beyond grateful for it now considering she was running on empty other than a faceless voice in her head and an empty painful longing in her chest every time she thought that beautiful name.

Alex Danvers.

But the idea of anyone besides herself, Kara or Linda sifting in its depths even for a few seconds had Maggie's blood boiling and her hand closing around the grip of the gun she'd hidden under her pillow whilst the agent so calmly keyed in the code that would open the door to all of Maggie's most closely guarded secrets.

Something Maggie wasn't about to let happen. She'd already lost so much when it came to Alex, she wasn't about to let herself lose anymore by sharing what little she had left of her former fiancée no matter how attractive said agent was.

The comforting hum of Alex's gun in her hand calms as for a brief moment soft hazel eyes lock onto Maggie's cold chocolate brown ones right before she fires her only warning shot.


	28. Chapter 28

Maggie had shot at her. Maggie had tried to kill her.

She stood there outside the cell the one they'd once used to contain Mon-El watching the steady rise and fall of her former fiancées her chest under the sedation.

Maggie had shot at her.

"Alex?"

She didn't turn around at the soft whisper of her name her focus stays on the sedated woman who despite having tried to murder her with her own gun still held her heart.

"She didn't mean it Alex." tears spilling into her voice, but Alex still refuses to turn to look at her. "They messed with her mind."

"Don't think I know that?" she snaps her voice strained as her hands fisting tighter in the sleeves of her shirt as she hugs her arms closer around herself as the speaker steps closer now standing shoulder to shoulder with the watching agent.

"You heard what Lin said. Those journals. She truly believes that those are all she has left of you. She can only remember broken bits from what little those psychopaths left of you in her mind and even those are fading based on what J'onn said."

Again, Alex recoils at the reminder. She's already heard this during the debriefing with everyone in their little group had after the incident.

Rise and fall. Rise and fall.

Up and down. Up and down.

Her hand brushes the top of Rory's head when the pup at her side whines looking up at her then over toward her sedated owner. Her duel colored eyes pleading as she takes a hesitant step closer. Alex shakes her head her hand once again smoothing down the fur at the top of the pup's head. "Can't yet."

"Oh, 'yet'. So does that mean you are going to open this thing at some point?"

The harsh bite of the question has Alex rounding on the speaker's eyes hard jaw set. Full agent mode.

Kate hardly bats an eye as she glares right back "Tell me I'm wrong then." Alex leans away puzzled, but Kate keeps going. "Look me in the eye and swear that the reason you're out here holding yourself like some dame leather clade pretzel is to stop yourself from breaking down that dammed door and hold her."

Alex stops her eyes now on the floor as Kate rocks back on her heels letting her pointing hand drop back to her side "That's what I thought."

"Have-therapy." Alex covers up her voice as weak and broken as her still beating heart as she casts one last look at the adorably drooling Maggie before turning toward the door Rory reluctantly padding along at her side. "Stay with her." Alex rasps out her eyes going back toward a still quietly weeping Batwoman. Well Batwoman minus the cowl at the moment.

It seemed Kate as stopped by to check on her girlfriend between calls just like Kara and Barry had been doing since that morning.

"Like you have to ask at all." The simi costumed vigilante sniffs sliding down the wall beside the glass wall of Maggie's holding cell.

Alex didn't really blame her much when Rory immediately turned around and jogged back into the room only stopping when she was close enough to say down at Kate's side with her head resting against the black leather clade knee.

"Misses you too sunbeam." Kate hiccupped tugging off her gloves as she slid her fingers down Rory's back then giving up and burying her tear-stained face against the dog's shoulders leaving Alex to limp down the hall toward the med wing on her own.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur and more than once Alex found herself wondering back toward that hallway.

Back toward her.

Each time she would catch herself and turn back. Heading to the lab or the training wing. The others would check-in, they would make sure Maggie was being looked after properly. She didn't need Alex handing around.

When night had finally come Alex couldn't take the self-isolation anymore. She had to see Maggie. Even when she could only talk to her using the dammed DEO tablet, she just had to see her again. Well, see her awake.

"No-No Lin don't-Linda stop."

The pain in her ex's voice was like a knife between her ribs as Alex jogs the last remaining steps toward the door left ajar by her newly found sister now paying Maggie a late-night visit.

Linda had been strangely MIA all day between super calls or at least going out of her way to avoid Alex.

"But you could get out." Winn exclaims while Alex creeps closer. So that's where he slipped off to considering he also had been avoiding Alex most of the day.

Alex didn't need to see her to know Maggie was shaking her head she could tell by how shaky her next shallow breath was before she spoke. "I don't want to get out. I…I need to stay here."

"Maggie…."

"Come on Mags you don't mean that."

Alex feels more tears sting her eyes at Linda and Winn talking over one another, but she can see from her hiding place by the door that Maggie's eyes are trained only on her younger sister standing with her hand outstretched by the controls.

"Please baby Danv…. Please, Linda. Just leave." Maggie begs. "Both of you." Her eyes flicker to Winn then holding the younger man's gaze for a few long seconds before returning to looking only at Linda. "Please. Please. Just turn around and walk out of here. Go on your date. Go have fun."

"Mags we can't just lea-"

Maggie is already shaking her head again now curled up on the bed mounted to the wall. Her knees pulled up against her chest her arms hugging them tightly as she looks between the couple. "You can. You can and you will." Maggie orders one-hand unlocking to tangle itself in her hair.

"I can't tell what's real anymore…."

Alex's hands curl into fists at her sides at just how broken Maggie's voice was as more tear these ones angry slide down her cheeks as Maggie keeps talking.

Kelly did this. She had been the one who'd tipped this new Cadmus off about where Maggie would be.

"For crying out loud Winn I said stop. Rao. Do you two not remember what happened a few hours ago? How can you willingly let me out knowing that?"

"Come on Mags everyone has there off days." Winn tries to smooth over.

Maggie glares and Winn backs up a few paces as her panther of a detective stalks back toward him as far as her cell would allow. "I almost killed someone, Winslow." Maggie's breath fogs the glass as she hisses the words passed her clenched teeth. "If Barry hadn't been there to zip her away and Alura hadn't wrestled the gun from me before I could try for a second shot I probably would have."

The couple scrambled to counter that, but Maggie pressed on.

"No, you two still don't get it, do you? I willingly pulled the trigger of a weapon knowing full well the damage that weapon was capable of just because someone was trying to help me."

Winn nodded but unlike Alex thought he wasn't cowering under the weight of Maggie's stare. "You were scared, and you were angry, we all get scared and angry sometimes Mags."

"I still tried to kill someone today. Someone who could have been Alex for all I know." Maggie fights back "I can't remember her anymore Winn. She's the woman I loved. Hell, the woman I still love. She would to be my wife right now if we hadn't ended things and I can't remember a dame thing about her other than fragments of a voice in my head."

That had Alex perking up just a little bit.

Maggie hears her?

"but I don't even know if it really is Alex's voice or just something Cadmus planted in me when they had me to make me think it was Alex to keep me their puppet once they finished stealing her from me."

That has the new happy bubble building in Alex's chest deflating a little but not bursting completely.

Winn would have commented on that too had Alex not decided she was finished listening from the sidelines. She let Rory in ahead of her as she pushed the door wider.

Going by the guilty nervous looks she was getting from two of the three Linda hadn't thought to keep an ear out for her during this little bust out she and Winn had been planning.

"Have fun tonight. I got her from here."

Alex winced at the computerized voice from the tablet, but she didn't trust her own voice not yet.

Linda and Winn exchanged a look as she and Rory drew closer.

Alex rolled her eyes jerking her chin toward the door in a way that had Winn scrambling backward to follow her upspoken order while Alex hides her pleased smile against her younger sister's shoulder as she hugs her goodbye for the night.

_'Still got it.'_ She laughs pressing one last kiss to the side of Linda's head before she lets her go. It's so cute how she was honest to Rao skipping on her way to take Winn's outstretched hand in her own.

"Hey, I demand pictures and or videos of what goes on for this date night, baby Danvers else I'm not believing a single thing you tell me happened." Maggie calls out before the door swings closed on the new couples harmonizing laughter from the hallway.

Rory was pawing pitifully at the glass now looking between Alex then Maggie and back again.

Alex nods crossing over o the controls while Maggie shakes her head and backs away into one of the corners. "Don't please." She begs but Alex doesn't listen keying in the code.

Rory bursts in her tail wagging so fast Alex feared it may fall off as the pup bounds over to her owner while Alex follows sliding in just in time before the door hissed closed.

Thankfully at first, Maggie doesn't notice her as she fends off Rory's eager tongue as she burrows as close as possible against Maggie's chest

Alex can only smile at Maggie's surprised gasp adding a little wave just because she felt like it when her eyes finally lock on her own.

Her ex blinks once twice.

She was still there each time. Sitting cross-legged on what was for the forceable Maggie's bed. A point Alex was hoping to change by the end of the following day.

"I tried to kill you today, yet you willingly lock yourself in a cell with me?"

The scared sarcasm makes Alex's heart twist painfully in her chest while she shrugs her shoulders. _"So, sue me I'm selfish."_ She types out resting the handheld tablet against her crossed legs.

"Selfish huh?"

Alex nodes _"I've missed you."_ while Maggie refuses to meet her eyes as she stayed curled up in her little corner of the whitewashed cell. _"Sorry for creeper computer talk."_ Alex goes on _"Got in a fight with a woman who didn't understand the meaning of the phrase 'she's taken'. Still healing up. Nothing was broken just severely bruised."_

This time Maggie shrugs but her eyes do linger sympathies on the bruises she could easily see specifically those on Alex's neck. "I've heard worse than weird robot voices." Finally, she meets Alex's eyes.

Alex swallows unable to process most of the roller-coaster of emotions she can name in those hypnotizing chocolate-colored eyes she missed so much. She needed to repeat the move when Maggie pushed herself to her feet crossing back so she was now standing right in front of a mesmerized agent Danvers.

Her hand was trembling as she raised it her eyes searching Alex's every few seconds the higher it moved until Maggie's hand brushed against Alex's ear her touch feather-light as the pads of her fingers skimmed over all three of her piercings as she brushed a stray strand of Alex's hair back behind her ear for her. Her eyes still searching the agents.

For what Alex wasn't sure but she wasn't about to stop and ask as she leaned into the touch.

Maggie's hand doesn't move as her free hand slips the tablet from Alex's lap. "Um…is this thing drop-proof?" Alex chuckles nodding against Maggie's cupped hand against her cheek. Maggie grins letting the device clatter to the floor beside the cells only bed.

Alex catches on the second Maggie drops her hand scooting down the cot to make more room for a grinning Maggie. After all, only five other people could make Alex safe enough to consider being the little spoon.

Her father turned very rarely her mother after Jeremiah's 'death' then again after his return and betrayal. J'onn had never seemed interested in the concept but his hugs were enough of a substitute when she needed them.

Alura had taken her up on the offer a few times when Alex had asked in her drug-addled state and was kind enough not to mention it too often in her talks with Eliza.

Kara and now by extension Linda only her youngest sister had yet to test this power preferring instead to have Alex curled up against her back keeping her safe during movie nights.

And….

"Wouldn't have pegged you for being okay playing baby spoon," Maggie comments as soon as they were settled in. The detective sitting up with only the thin airplane worthy pillow protecting her back from the chill of the whitewashed wall. Alex tucked between her legs her back pressed against the detective's front. The agent in her arms huffed snuggling back against the curve of Maggie's body against her own as she tugs Maggie's arms tighter around her own waist while she moves. "Okay okay. So needy." The cop sighs making Alex grin as she nuzzles her cheek against Maggie's shoulder.

Pretty soon Rory grows tired of being left out and decides to hop up onto the cot with them ending up curled up in Alex's lap when everyone settled down again.


	29. Chapter 29

He regrets the question almost as soon as the words have left his mouth when he feels more than sees her stiffen at his side.

"A what?" she stammers her hand dropping out of his own after she'd nearly tugged his arm out of place pulling him to a stop.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no it's nothing like that." Winn promised his hands raised in defense reading the unspoken fear in those open book blue eyes he was once again falling hard for. "It's well it's like a…" he began to explain but going by the start of tears in her eyes he wasn't going a proper job of it. "Like a…"

"Oh, there you two are."

Winn at least breathed a quick sigh of relief at the cheery tone while Eliza and Jeremiah Danvers seemed to melt out of the crowed hand in hand while Winn continued to scramble with an explanation.

"Lin? Linda Sweetheart what's wr-" but Eliza didn't get to finish her question before Linda's arms locked around her middle knocking the air out of the mother's lungs at the speed of it with her head nuzzled against Eliza's shoulder as she mumbles out an answer that the trio around her suspect not even her equally superpowered sister could understand.

"Start talking." Jeremiah demanded rounding on the guilty-looking young man standing beside them his tone more worried than angry as he rests a hand against Red Daughter's back while Eliza's hand soothes down her hair as Linda sniffs out a few more quiet sobs against her shoulder.

Winn drops his head with a regretful sigh before he meets the Danvers's father's eyes. "I asked if she wanted to try an elephant ear because she said she was getting hungry. It was the first thing that came to mind you know since we're at a carnival and all and I knew _she _hasn't tried one for herself yet. I wasn't thinking."

The parents share a look between them while Winn goes back to memorizing his shoes. With an agreeing node between them Jeremiah claps Winn on his shoulder with a suggestive "Let's go see what culinary delights they offer here shall we?" whilst Eliza gently prods Linda into following her over to the small collection of tables set up not that far from the collection of food stands.

It hadn't been Eliza nor Jeremiah's intent to crash their newest daughter's date night when they'd chosen to head over to the National City boardwalk for some time away but after spotting the pair walking close enough to be holding hands as they wondered the various stands and games the boardwalk offered it had just felt normal to start shadowing them. Just to be sure Linda wouldn't become overwhelmed with the bright lights and loud noises of the carnival atmosphere.

Both of them remembered all too clearly the tearful phone call they received the first time Kara had tried to tag along when Alex had gone to the street fair only for her newly awakened powers to quickly overwhelmed the young Kryptonian.

"See sweetheart it isn't really an Elephant's ear that's just what they call it because it fries up so big when it's finished." Eliza explains pulling up a few pictures on her phone for proof. Carefully Linda takes the phone meticulously studying each picture before her red-rimmed eyes meet Eliza's understanding gaze. "Okay."

"Who's this cutie?" Eliza asks noticing the way her daughter had been absenting petting the head of a plush tiger sitting in her lap as she scrolled the pictures of the different fair foods. "Mikhail," Linda says without looking up from the phone her hands still smoothing down the plush animal's fur between its ears. "Winn won him for me at a ball throw game." She elaborates bringing a fond smile to the elder woman's lips.

"Mikhail." Eliza repeated remembering the time she'd heard Kara using that name "wasn't that the name of the little boy you met in Kaznia?"

Linda flinches when the question also brought back her more painful memories of what had happened to her young friend as she slides Eliza's phone back across the table with a whispered "Da." in confirmation as she hugs the tiger a little closer against her chest shielding it in a way she hadn't been able to do with the real Mikhail.

"You know that Siberia is home to the world's largest wild cat in the world?" Eliza says conversationally in hopes of getting the heartbroken look from her daughter's face. Just like how a quick talk about otters had always brightened up a pouty faced Alex when she was younger.

"Really?" her more childlike Kara asked her eyes sparking in wonder as she carefully places the toy tiger on the table her eyes only on Eliza now. The mother smiles as she pockets her phone. Works every time. "Oh yes." She assures "11 feet length if I remember correctly and that's just its body the tail is an added 3 feet in length." Eliza rattles off remembering a younger Alex repeating the facts to her after a trip to the zoo with her father. "Actually, I think I still have one of Alex's animal books Jeremiah picked back at home if you…"

"Yes please." Linda nodes "All the books -" she started but stopped her eyes closing tightly but not before Eliza spotted the first licks of fire in her youngest daughter's ocean colored eyes before she started over eyes still tightly closed. Her shaking hand going back to therapeutically petting the soft fur of the plush toy as she forces the words out. "_He_ would only send books to shape me into a weapon. Ones on the American economy, politics, war, teaching me English while making me hate as well." She pauses her expression softening as her fingers continue tenderly caressing the toy cat nestled against her lap. "Sometimes he sent others like _Gatsby,_"

Eliza smiles despite herself at just how much her daughter seemed to enjoy the gruesome romance of that literary classic before Linda's gaze hardened a second time in under a full minute to the point her watching adopting mother once again worried she would burn a hole into the tabletop as she speaks up "but then he said it was only to teach about how American capitalism corrupts and weakens men." Linda opens up making Eliza fight to keep her anger from her expression at the confession when Linda's eyes meet her own.

"I do not want to be a weapon, Mama." Red Daughter whispers her tone defeated.

"Oh, honey." Eliza's hands covered her own making Linda's weakened sniffles closer to full-on sobs when the calming words came out in Kryptonian rather than in English or her more native Russian. "You're not a weapon sweetheart. You're my daughter just as much as Alex and Kara are." Eliza promises saying it with such confidence that Linda couldn't help but believe it while her human mother finished coming around to the other side of the table in order to pull the now hiccupping Kaznian in for a hug.

"None of my girls are in any way weapons no matter how many superpowers or hours of military, shadow ninja or police academy combat training you might have. In the end, you are still one of my daughters." She promises rocking the blonde-haired girl in her arms back and forth as she spoke.

The young hero was about to speak up when Jeremiah and the boy she was having feelings for return carrying several trays of different sweet-scented treats.

"What did you buy everyone out?" Eliza jokes after noting just how many options they'd brought back.

"We didn't know what _she_ liked so we picked up a bit of everything." Her adoptive father shrugs a pleased smile on his lips at Linda's wide-eyed expression at the spread just as Eliza was.

"Mic keeping an eye on you alright Snowie?" Winn asks licking the mixed dusting of cinnamon and powder sugar from his fingers before he gives the tiger cub at Linda's elbow an affectionate pat on the head.

The parents sharded another assessing glance between them when Linda blushes as she nodes despite trying to hide the color in her cheeks behind her hair whilst she tries to whip away the tear tracks under her eyes as the two men claim their seats at the table.

Winn's on her other side when it was clear Eliza wasn't going to move any time soon with Jeremiah taking the yet to be claimed space across from all three of them.

"Don't be shy, Snowie, we did get most of this for you, but half is for us to enjoy too." Jeremiah encourages gesturing toward the number of options covering the table.

Nervous eyes glance toward Winn but he nodes his head as well. "It's alright, Lin." He promises choosing not to comment when he feels Linda's hand slipping back into his own under the table.

"Is this the—" Red Daughter begins to ask poking a finger of her free hand at one of the deep-fried options.

The guilty look returns making Lind carefully squeeze the hand she was secretly holding in sympathy as the dark-haired man nodes his head. "That's the elephant ear."

Linda nods but instead chooses to tug a different plate closer after carefully passing off the fluffier version of Mikhail to her mother for safekeeping while they ate.

"Lin honey. Smile for the camera." Jeremiah coaxes holding up his phone to catch a more chipmunked cheeked grin once Linda had found the plate holding the deep-fried Oreos.

* * *

"But if you were a ." Maggie says her chin resting against Alex's shoulder as she reads "then how would you hug me with your tiny little arms?"

Without thinking Alex lets her fingers trace up the inside of Maggie's arm bringing a soft sigh and a pause to the murmured story being whispered against her ear. She pays careful attention to the healing scars of scalpels and needle marks as well as the yet to fade bruising left around her wrists from the restrains those so-called doctors used on her. this care is more for her than for Maggie. A way to burn each new reason to hate Cadmus or whatever it was they called themselves now.

"You're distracting me again." Maggie sighed letting the child's book Linda had entrusted to her fall against her side while the cute agent sitting in her lap shrugs a shoulder then goes back to her tracing of invisible patterns against the inside of Maggie's forearm.

She should push the tender touch away. It wasn't Alex's touch, or maybe it was but either way she shouldn't be enjoying it as much as she was until she was sure what was real and what was just some really clever trick left over from her time as Kelly's plaything.

_"No matter what I do I can't break the love I know she still carries for you."_ Maggie remembers James's sister whispering to her while one of the lab doctors tightened the straps around Maggie's wrists and ankles._ "She still calls for you in her sleep."_ At the time she was sure her captor hadn't meant for her to overhear the whispered words while the one she'd only find out later to be James Olsen's sister looms over her

_"I didn't want it to come to this Maggie. Really I didn't but you forced my hand worming your way back into her life," _Kelly murmurs dipping her fingers into the green liquid that serves as the trapped cop's torture cage to twist a few wet strains of Maggie's hair around her fingers whilst a supposed to have been unconscious Maggie watched her out of the corner of her half-closed eyes. _"Alex is mine Sawyer and now thanks to Cadmus I won't need to worry about you stealing her away from me again."_

Soft hands rather than rough wet ones caress her cheek then pulling a now tearful Maggie back into the world outside her own mind. The woman once rather contently sprawled out over the dazed cop's front was now kneeling between Maggie's legs with those beautiful hazel eyes full of concern mixed with some small sparks of hope trained on her face.

"Just taking an unexpected trip down fractured memory lane." Maggie tells her reading the yet to be typed out questions she guessed were just dancing on the tip of the red head's tongue as the agent's hand careful cups her chin.

Alex's eyes narrowed as she slowly moves her hand from Maggie's jaw to twisting a lock of her hair back behind her ear.

The move so like the one she remembered Kelly doing should have had her recoiling in disgust, but Maggie found herself leaning into the touch. Craving more as she felt her heart quietly breaking at the pained pout now crossing the agent's features when the door to their hide away slides open.

"I know dear one." The Kryptonian mother nodes while 'cute agent' drops back into her original sprawled out position like an angered cat about to have its favorite toy stolen away even going so far as to snuggle back against the curve of Maggie's body with a teenager worthy huff of displeasure as Alura crossed over to the detainment cell's control panel.

"Don't make this harder please." Alura sighs the paused her expression now one of concern as she looks over the two occupants of the cell where she had been told had once held three.

"Katie took her for a walk a little while ago." Maggie calms before Alex could do more than pull her tablet back into her lap. "They both needed time away."

Alura gives an understanding node as she keys in the unlock code her eyes moving from Maggie to Alex, "I understand your frustrations Firestar, but _she's_ asking to see you again and the good news is J'onn has said Maggie is to be moved back into her room now she poses no threat."

Maggie winces at the comment no matter how true it was given why she'd been locked away in the first place. Kara's mother rests a hand against her ankle as she folds herself down at the end of the bed. "Maggie it's alright." She assures.

Alex's hand slips back into Maggie's giving it a reassuring squeeze as her ex's arms snake around her waist hugging her closer. "_But Maggie hasn't finished the story yet," _Alex's borrowed voice says

"Oh? And what story would that be?" Alura chuckles leaning in to run an affectionate hand in the pouting agent's hair.

Maggie holds up the book for the mother's inspection "_The Runaway Dinosaur. _Lin read it to me a time or two before Kara found us._"_

Alura leans in interested as she looks over the front cover. "Dinosaurs and thwarted love affairs. Firestar remind me to have a talk with Lin about her reading habits."

There was something about the scratchy laughter from the woman in her arms that has Maggie dimly remembering a softer time where another woman gave the same scratchy laugh before whispering those four that still had Maggie's heart-melting. _"I love you, Maggie Sawyer."_

A loud rap of knuckles against the door puts an end to the remembered moment as Maggie as well as the agent and Alura glance over a guilty-looking Susan Vasquez "Sorry boss but _she's _really making a fuss about wanting to see you."

The scratchy curse wasn't one Maggie recognized but it seemed Alura seemed to if the narrowed eye look, she sends the red-haired woman shifting in Maggie's arms was anything to go by. "Be back soon." The grumpy DEO agent says as striking hazel eyes find saddened chocolate brown.

Alura and Vaz shared a surprising glance when Maggie's hand caught Alex's wrist tugging her back around once the latter had grudgingly gotten to her feet.

"I'll finish the story when you come back okay?" Alex nodes her free hand moving to twist the chain of her necklace around her fingers as Maggie flashes a subdued half-smile. "It's a date."


End file.
